Becoming the Demon Shark
by Blood Thirsty Me
Summary: The story of Kisame's past. How he came in possession of Samehada, why he betrayed Kirigakure, how he joined the Akatsuki and how he lost his first friend. Rated for violence,language and other future content. CLOSED.
1. Like a Son

Becoming the "Demon Shark

Becoming the "Demon Shark."

**Author's Note****: Okay, so I decided to make a fan-fic about my favorite character, Hoshigaki Kisame. I decided to give him a past which will basically follow his childhood up to the point of how, and why, he betrayed Kirigakure. This story will also include Suigetsu, Zabuza, and my OC, Hankyu Yumi. Again, I wrote this just for the fun of it. I should also point out that all information that I have of Kisame I received from wikipedia and narutopedia! I have NOT read the online manga nor have I watched any recent Shippuunden episodes on youtube! So please don't bitch to me about "Oh, that can't happen 'cause blah blah blah happens in the manga!" This is a FAN FICTION! It's NOT SUPPOSED to be 100 accurate! So, please enjoy the story! I will not post chapter two unless I get five reviews about chapter one! Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer:**** All Naruto characters used and mentioned in this fan fiction are © Masashi Kishimoto. All OC's in this fan fiction are © NinjaGirl101 (me) unless stated in future chapters. NinjaGirl101 is also known as MeiMeiBrownCoat on (and DeviantArt), which is where I might post this story next.**

Chapter One: Like a Son.

Hoshigaki Kisame stood in front of his deceased partner's grave as the sun began to disappear behind the hills, his black cloak absorbing the warmth of the last remaining orange rays. He had created a grave for the oldest Uchiha once he had found him dead. It was so strange, burying his closest friend. Throughout the whole process he was expecting Itachi to open his eyes and give him that emotionless stare before getting up to leave. But it didn't happen. Itachi did not blink, he did not stir, and he did not mumble some obscene words. He was really dead.

_How long has it been since I've felt this alone?_ Kisame asked himself as he stared at the freshly disturbed soiled that covered his friend six feet below. It felt like he had buried his own son. Of course that's always been how Kisame treated Itachi, like his own son. How Itachi viewed Kisame he'll never know, but he just hoped that he was viewed as a friend in the Uchiha's emotionless eyes.

The sudden urge of murderous rage overflowed Kisame's mind and body as his mind drifted off to the cause of Itachi's death. _Sasuke. That little bastard's gonna pay for this one day!_ Kisame vowed as he tightly clenched his fists, digging his purple painted fingernails into his palms and soon feeling the warm trickle of his blood seeping under his nails. How he would enjoy watching Sasuke's own blood bathing Samehada's scales and the feel of the younger Uchiha's detached head in his grasps. Nothing could make him happier than to make the boy suffer. But now that he was an Akatsuki member, Kisame was not allowed to murder him. They were now teammates, and it was forbidden to kill fellow members.

Kisame knew that this wasn't his first surge of rage over a dead loved-one. In fact, this was his second. But how did the first one come about again?

_"Oh look, it's your child. Say hello to the little abomination!"_

The shark-like man winced as he remembered the hateful voice of a discriminative Kirigakure villager and what he had done after saying those words.

"Child?" Kisame mumbled, rummaging through his memories to try to remember how he had acquired a child. If he had a kid…then he must have had a woman of some sort…fiancé, wife, girlfriend, or maybe even a personal whore? Who was it that had bore his child? If that had been possible, then he definitely hadn't found the Akatsuki at the time…how had he joined the Akatsuki anyway? And why?

Kisame sighed and sat down, figuring that it would take a while to remember what had happened in his past. He unsheathed Samehada and placed the giant sword next to him and stared at it for while. A smirk escaped the pale-blue man, "Well, at least I know how I got you." He said to the still sword as he shook his head, "I can't believe they introduced me to you when I was seven…"


	2. The Seven Swords of the Mist

**Author's Note: Yeah, I know I said I wouldn't update until I got 5 reviews, but then again it was just the first chapter and it doesn't reveal a whole lot, so I lowered my expectations. So, here's chapter two. **

**Chapter summary: Kisame sees Samehada for the first time, his classmates are a bunch of brats, and his sensei is just there.**

**About 90 of the story will follow Kisame. Though sometimes it will veer off and follow someone else, I promise you that when it DOES happen it's because it is IMPORTANT! Of course, I bet you guys already knew that. But someone, sooner or later, is bound to say "How can Kisame remember that if it didn't happen to him!?"**

**Thank you very much for reading (even though most of you probably aren't reading the author's note) and please review. I really appreciate it when I know how people like the story. And since the story is still early in development, I can make changes to future chapters to make the story better if you review. Thanks again and enjoy chapter two! **

Chapter Two: The Seven Swords of the Mist

_Shit!_ A seven year-old Kisame screamed inside of his head and he dashed through the streets Kirigakure. _Shit! Shit! SHIT!!_ It was six in the morning and already he was late for class.

In class yesterday, the sensei had told the class that he was taking all of them somewhere special. The little field trip was supposed to boost everyone's need to pass the graduation exam that they would be taking in three weeks. Kisame had been so excited about it that his eyes refused to stay shut long enough for the rest of his body to shut down into sleep. Instead, his busy mind would try to guess where the sensei would be taking them. Was it the monuments that were created for all dead shinobi in their village? Or perhaps the coast, where the blood of enemy and fellow shinobi had been shed? His mind had suggested such things to the blue-skinned child until he unknowingly fell asleep.

It wasn't until a stray cat had gotten into his room and woke him that he realized what the time was. The shark-like boy had then grabbed a set of clothes and rushed out of the abandoned hut, putting his pants on over his boxers while running, and switching his thin brown shirt for a slightly cleaner black one. He had thrown the brown fabric once it was off and had not paid any attention to where it had landed.

Kisame rushed through the crowded streets, yelling out his apologies whenever he bumped into someone or almost ran into them. He ran out toward a creek that served as a border between the market section of the village and the academy. There was a bridge that went over the creek, but Kisame decided that it was too far away and decided to take a chance and jump the creek.

His feet pounded into the soil beneath him at a faster pace as the pale-blue child prepared his body for the jump. A small grunt escaped Kisame when he jumped over the creek and when his left foot twisted and fell into the freezing water once he landed on the other side. He quickly yanked his foot out of the water and continued his frantic sprint.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow," Kisame kept hissing through his pointed clenched teeth every time his left foot made contact with the ground. It had been twisted more badly than he had thought, but there was no way he was going to let a simple injury make him more late than he already was.

"Alright is everyone ready?" Kisame could hear his sensei's voice as the academy entrance came into view. His sensei was standing in front of Kisame's classmates, who crowded in front of the bald man, and were getting ready to head out.

_Damn it! They're gonna leave me!_ Kisame thought as his pace quickened and as his left ankle began to throb more in a useless plea for him to stop running. "HEY!" he yelled out. The teacher and classmates turned their heads to look at him. "I'M HERE!" Kisame ignored the annoyed and scornful looks that the other kids were giving him as he stopped in front of the teacher. "I'm here!"

Kisame gasped heavily and quickly as he tried to regain his breath, hunching over and resting his hands on his knees. His heart pounded and his breath was returning to him quicker than he expected, but the teacher didn't wait until he was fully recovered before asking, "Why are you late Kisame?"

Kisame gulped and panted out. "I…slept in…cat…woke me." His breath came back to him and he stood up straight, wiping the sweat off of his forehead with his arm.

"Wish the cat had waited a few more minutes" a student muttered and was answered by a few chuckles and giggles.

Kisame looked at the group of kids and glared angrily at them. He wasn't sure who it was that had said it, but the glare was good enough to make them all look away from him. Of course that was nothing new to the boy. Everyone in the village was either afraid of him or had a strong hatred for him. Kisame knew that his appearance was a reason why he wasn't welcomed but there was another reason that he didn't fully know about. He heard some of the older villagers talk about it, and from what he could gather, it had something to do with his parents. The boy could careless about the two people who had brought him into the world, and would walk away from the conversation before he could hear anymore. But even though everyone hated and feared him, they still allowed him into the academy. But the reason was still unknown to him.

"Alright," his sensei's booming voice called out to the class, "now that _everyone_ is here, we'll be on our way."

An excited smile came to Kisame's face as he limped behind his sensei while the rest of the class began to follow, their walks perfectly normal and unhindered by an injured ankle. Even though the sensei would look back to check his students, and even though Kisame began to slow down, but not enough to be left behind or put in the back of the line, no one paid any attention to, or mentioned, his twisted ankle. Even though they all knew it was there.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

The group of students followed their sensei as he led them to a marsh far from their village. Kisame had learned how to ignore his throbbing ankle after the first two hours of the walk and was back at the front of the line. All of the students were starting to get tired and even a few of them had already emptied the contents from their canteens, though a few of their friends were generous enough to share. Some of them tried to convince the sensei to stop, but the man would just tell them to suck it up and kept walking.

"There it is," The sensei muttered.

A small hut was a few yards ahead of them. It wasn't as big as Kisame's home, but this one hadn't been abandoned for a few years either. Kisame had never heard of anything important that was near the marshes, so why had their sensei taken them to this hut?

"Everyone," the man spoke as the group of students came to a halt in front of the hut, "sandals off before you enter."

As everyone started to take off their sandals, Kisame looked for a patch of dry grass to wipe his feet on. He didn't have enough money to buy sandals, so everywhere he went he was bare foot. Not being able to find something dry, Kisame took off his black shirt and wiped the bottoms of his feet with it, making sure it was inside out when he did so. He heard a few kids laugh at him and even heard one say to another, "I told you he's blue all over!" but he ignored them. He put his shirt back on once he was done, the dirt and moist mud that was once on his feet now touching his chest and stomach, but not visible.

Kisame followed his fellow classmates into the hut and was immediately hit with the smell of jasmine and yarrow. There must have been some incense burning somewhere. The smell cleared the child's head and he felt a strange sense of balance within the hut. It made him feel as if he were protected by an unknown force. Everyone seemed to have felt the same presence for no one didn't even utter a whisper. The students silently followed their sensei down to the end of the building, their tiny feet not making a single sound on the tatami mats that covered the entire floor. They passed many rooms and Kisame noticed that the people in the rooms were shinobi. He wanted to ask his sensei why there were shinobi in the hut, other than themselves, but his question was answered for him before he could utter it out.

The sensei led them into a large room where they all stood in front of a row of seven giant swords placed against the far wall. All of them had been crafted differently so not one was alike. The students gawked and many of them said "wow", breaking the silence as a few gasps of amazement joined in.

"If you pass the graduation exam," their sensei explained to the gawking students, "then one of you will wield one of these swords."

"Just one of us?" a girl inquired.

The man nodded, "Yes. The graduation exam is set up so that only one of you can pass."

Some of the students went silent; some started muttering out their fears, while some of the more egotistical ones proclaimed that they were the ones who would pass. Their voices grew loud enough that the sensei had to silence them with a low "Hush!"

"Excuse me, Sensei," one student raised his hand, "but what will the test be?"

"You'll find out on the day we give you the test." The sensei stated simply.

Although Kisame heard all of this, he wasn't looking at anyone when the words were spoken; he was too fixated on the blue scaled sword before him. It looked dangerous and reminded him of a shark's skin. The sensei began to talk about the history of each sword and their names. All of the swords had been used before by many great shinobi in the past, but only one has yet to taste any blood in the battle field.

"Samehada," the sensei explained to his students. Kisame was listening more intently this time and kept his eyes on the bald man, wanting to know as much about the blue sword as possible. "has never experienced battle before. The only blood it's tasted are from the few shinobi who have tried to wield it."

"The sword ate the wielders!?" a student shrieked.

The sensei sighed, "No, the sword didn't eat anyone. It's just that no one can wield it. If anyone does, then spikes will spring out of the sword's handle."

After hearing those words, Kisame became very uninterested in the sword. The sword was cool looking, but then again Kisame would like his better if there weren't any holes punched in them. However, even though the danger of getting your hand spiked lingered, there was still something about it that fascinated the boy enough to make him think that he was the one who could wield the dangerous weapon.


	3. His Hut

Chapter Three: His Hut

**Author's Note: Okay, so it's been a (long) while since I last updated. School's got me in a bunch, but it's fun (since at my school, I get to draw for half of the day :D). Plus I've had a bit of a writer's block AND, at one point, our power was out for three days straight . So now my only writing time is on weekends. Updates will be moving along slowly but surely. As long as I don't get another bad case of writer's block, then the story should be updated at least once every week or two. But that's only if I'm feeling productive :P. **

**Thank you for all the reviews!!! I really appreciate them and I noticed how many people have read this story, and I'm amazed! Hehe, okay enough of that. Please enjoy this third installment of "Becoming the Demon Shark." **

**Chapter Summary: At first it just follows Kisame's basic life style, but then it goes a little further in the plot when the boy finds some new footprints in the dirt by his home.**

Kisame lowered his aching ankle into the hot springs, hissing softly at the temporary pain that the steaming water gave, but sighed happily once his whole foot was submerged, the water now more soothing than painful.

Once the little field trip was done, the sensei had told everyone to go back home and get ready for vigorous training exercises tomorrow. All of the students were excited and pleased that one of them would be able to wield such powerful swords after the graduation exam. Some students had even started to guess at what the final test would be about, though Kisame had ignored them all. What he had really wanted was to go to his hot spring and relax.

It was "his" hot spring because it was located in the woods near his home. He had found it recently and was still relying on the cut marks that he had carved into the trees to get to the spring and back home. Of course he never went to the place at night. That's when he heard most of the criminals wander about in the woods and even near his home. So far none of them had entered his hut while he was in it, but the adrenaline would still surge through his body and keep him up for an extra hour even after the noises had ceased.

Kisame pulled his foot out of the water and began to rub his ankle. Strangely, it didn't hurt as much as it had before. There was still a dull pain, but it felt more like a bruise that a twisted ankle. He shrugged and stood up. It didn't hurt as much to put all of his weight on it either.

_That's good water, _Kisame thought to himself as he took of his shirt, pants and boxers, throwing them all on a nearby rock, and lowered himself into the warm water. He smiled and sighed at the soothing power of the warm water. This was the closest thing to a bath that he'll ever get until he becomes a full-fledged shinobi, where he'll get paid to go on missions. Then he'll be able to attend to the public baths.

The thought excited and depressed him at the same time. If he goes into a public bath or a public anything for that matter, everyone will just make fun of his blue skin and weird appearance. He noticed that the women like to whisper about it behind his back while the men like to say it loud enough for him to hear. Was blue skin really that bad to have?

He sunk himself lower until the water was just below his nose, glaring at the emptiness before him. _Why aren't I normal looking?_ He thought with bitterness, blaming his parents for his looks. He didn't know why, but he had a feeling that they had something to do with it.

After staying in the spring for another half-hour, Kisame got out and put his clothes back on, not really caring that they were getting wet, and followed the marks in the trees. His home was once a fisherman's hut built next to a small dock many years ago. The man was probably a good fisherman, since the hut was fairly big and must've had a high tax, but it didn't matter now. The man had died long before Kisame was brought into the world and the hut was now a rotting heap of wood that had moss and other weeds growing all over it. There were a few holes in the roof, walls, and throughout the rest of the building, but Kisame didn't care. The only room he used had close to no holes in the wood work at all. He only used the hut to sleep in or use as shelter from the rain and snow. The rest of his time was spent training to better himself at his ninjutsu and taijutsu skills (he wasn't too fond of genjutsu at all).

The dock was starting to fall apart, but it didn't matter to him. He had never gone on it anyway.

Kisame had grabbed some fallen sticks and twigs while on his way back home to use for a fire and placed the pile of wood on the ground in front of his hut. He'd start the fire once dinner was caught.

He was making his way to the shore when he noticed a new pattern in the dirt. There were footprints in the dirt that weren't his. He knew what kind of prints the criminals left; usually it was a one foot-one sandal marking or even a pair of misshapen sandals. But these prints were perfect in everyway and extremely small. Whose were they?

_Must've been someone who was lost, _Kisame assumed, pushing the thought from his mind as he kicked some dirt over the footprints. He sat down by the water's edge, just out of reach of the water as it moved forward to tag the shore. He clasped his hands together and closed his eyes, concentrating on his chakra so that he could control it more efficiently. The surge of the chakra's uncontrolled power flowed through his veins and made his blood pump faster and faster. Once the power was under his control, Kisame made the tiger hand sign to create a water clone.

_Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu. _He said the technique's name in his head. His teacher said it was easier to perform the jutsu if you say its name in your head. The method worked perfectly for Kisame.

The water splashed around before forming an exact copy of the boy. Kisame smiled at the clone as it stepped onto shore and made its way to the door of the hut. The water clone dispersed and became nothing but a puddle on the dirt…with three live fish jumping into the air and making little splashes as they landed back on the puddle. Grinning proudly at his catch, Kisame stood up and grabbed a sharpened stick that he kept for such an occasion.

He stabbed each fish through their eyeballs. Each one gave one last flicker of their tail before lying still on the muddy ground. Kisame stuck the stick in his mouth and yanked the eyeballs off, his pointed teeth scraping against the hard surface. The fish eyes were chewy and bitter as the boy munched on them but he was used to the taste. He swallowed the little snack before stabbing each fish in the mouth with a stick from his firewood pile. This was one of his best catches in the past week.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Kisame punched at a tree with the first two knuckles on his fists. The tree was just starting to lose the moss on its bark because of all the times Kisame had used it for his punching bag. He would punch the tree until the skin on his knuckles was about to tear; that's when he would start the kicking exercises. Sure his hand would hurt for the rest of the day and some of tomorrow, but he could feel his knuckle bones getting stronger and allowing Kisame to hit at the tree harder every time.

He gave the tree one last punch before he switched to a powerful roundhouse kick, making sure he struck the tree with the bottom of his foot instead of his toes. He kept up this exercise, switching his feet every ten kicks, until he could smell the three fish begin to singe.

Sitting in front of the small fire and munching on his dinner, Kisame watched the water before him, his mind wandering back to the large scaled sword. _What was it called again? Samehida?_ Kisame thought about the weapon and decided he would visit the hut in which it rested, after class. He finished off the last fish and stood up, stretching his arms up toward the darkening sky. Time for bed.

Kisame went into his hut to change his shirts when he realized that he had not put his tattered brown shirt back in the hut after his mad dash this morning. He ran outside and searched for the piece of fabric, wishing he had more time to look for it. The only importance the shirt held for Kisame was that it kept him warm at night and whenever his training was going to get him all messed up. The sky became black and the stars began to appear little by little. Kisame sighed and made his way back to his hut. The search would have to continue tomorrow.

He took off his black shirt and folded it as nice as he could and placed it beside the futon. The same process occurred when he took his pants off, but left his boxers on. The futon was old and smelled like mold, but it was still usable and Kisame was not a picky person. He got under the blanket and closed his eyes, telling himself to wake up on time in the morning.


	4. The One Named Bows

Chapter Four: The One Named "Bows."

**Author's Note: Okay! Fourth Chapter! My OC, Hankyu Yumi, is introduced in this chapter. I now realize that "Yumi" as a name means "Beauty." I didn't really want that to be her name, but I'm too lazy to change it. PLEASE don't assume that she's a Mary-Sue!!! I swear, she's not a Mary-Sue! She's far from it! (Oh, and uh, in the chapter title it's pronounced "bogh" like a bow and arrow. ^_^).**

**Thank you for the all reviews and the hits and the favorites and alerts!! I really appreciate them! Chapter five will be up eventually…but I'm on a bit of a role right now, so it might be up sooner than even I might expect O.o…**

**So, enough of my blabbering; Here's the fourth installment of "Becoming the Demon Shark."**

**Chapter Summary: The owner of the footprints is revealed and Kisame has an unfortunate accident with Samehada…**

It was late afternoon, just one more hour until class was over and Kisame could go home. The sensei was merciless with training today. In the morning he had them all do eight-count body-builders. The sensei would ask a student a question while they were doing the exercise and he expected them to answer correctly when they stood up, otherwise he would kick at their heads.

Some of the students had blocked the kicks at the beginning of the exercise. After over fifty body-builders, however, the students began to get slow and tired. The sensei had kicked a few of the dumber students several times across the face. Those students were already developing nicely colored bruises, and they were getting their adult teeth in sooner than they had expected. Kisame had answered a few questions incorrectly, but that was at the beginning of class; every time the sensei had lifted his foot to strike at the boy he would block successfully. Though, his forearms would be sporting bright green and purple bruises for a few weeks.

After that morning exercise the sensei announced that that would be their morning routine from now on. That same thing had been applied to their other activities of the day too.

In every exercise the sensei had asked the students questions that they had gone over in the classroom. Every time someone got an answer wrong the sensei would either kick them in the head, or twist their ear, or punish some other delicate pressure point. It had made Kisame nervous, especially since he didn't really study much of the book work that they had gone over.

By the time it had reached lunch, everyone had some sort of bruise, or injury, that was caused by either the sensei or one of the exercises. But there was one kid who had the least amount of bruises on him. He was known as the "class prodigy" by the adults, the class "heart-throb" by the girls, and the class "expectation" to the boys. But to Kisame, he was the class "jack-ass." He wasn't too sure what it meant, but he had heard a lot of the men in the village yell it out at people when they were angry (among other things). He absolutely _hated_ the kid. Everyday that boy was making some sort of remark about Kisame's skin or appearance. The kid had even started a rumor that Kisame's mother was a shark. If it weren't for the school rules, Kisame would've punched that kid's nose in long ago.

That kid was now talking with his "friends," telling them the secret of how he got so little injuries. Kisame always thought that the boy was all talk and no action; and he prayed that his assumption was right.

"Line UP!" the sensei barked. Everyone stood up and rushed up to the man after yelling back, "yes sensei!" Kisame stood up straight with his hands behind his back and feet shoulder-width apart, just like everyone else. The sensei eyed them all and made a humming noise as he thought of what exercise he would have his students do next.

"Alright," the man mumbled. He looked down at the top of one kid's orange head and hollered to the whole class, "I want everyone to make at least three water clones!"

Everyone groaned in protest. They were all tired and sore everywhere. Even if someone had enough chakra in them to make three water clones, there was no way they could summon the strength to do so. Kisame was one of these people and the pale blue child knew it; but he was too tired to even think about such possibilities. He just wanted to go home, eat something and sleep. He might even skip the whole eating process and go straight to bed if his feet could carry him that far before he passed out.

"QUIET!" the sensei demanded, his face turning red in anger and veins starting to show through his bald head while he glared at the whole class. The boy in front of him looked like he was about to piss himself in fear. Kisame had to look down at his toes in order to hide his amusement. "You _will_ make three water clones. And if you do that without passing out, then you may come back to the academy tomorrow to continue training for the final exam."

Kisame, along with the rest of the students, looked at the bald man in nervous shock, the color draining from all of their faces at the mere thought of the man's threat. All of them were hoping that he was joking, that he would crack a smile and laugh at their ridiculous faces. But he didn't even twitch. The sensei stared them all down, silently telling them that he was deadly serious.

A girl broke the silence with a cracking voice, "Why won't we be allowed back? That's not very fair at all!" she seemed about ready to break out into tears when she spoke.

The sensei strode over to her slowly; his heavy boots making the ground vibrate beneath the rows of tiny feet. He stopped in front of the girl and knelt down so he was staring at her straight in the eyes. With a low and threatening voice, the sensei spoke to the girl; and even though the speech was only meant for her, it felt like everyone could hear the man.

"You'll learn soon enough that life isn't fair at _all_. In order to be a shinobi, you must suck it up and live with the fact that your life is the most unfair of all. You will be told to do things that you won't want to do, but you will do them anyway. Why? Because, in every situation it'll be either you, or the enemy, who lives; and if you somehow survive, while the enemy is still breathing, and you come back _here_…" he paused and shook his head slowly, "then they'll prepare your funeral the day you come back. No second chances. You will either kill or be killed. Whether it be by the hands of the enemy or your fellow countrymen is up to _you_." The man pushed the girl back a few steps out of line with one meaty index finger. "The worst part of it is," he stood up and stared down at the girl. Her pink cheeks were stained with the silent tears that she had allowed to fall when the sensei was talking, "The final exam that's coming up will be the first 'unfair' order that you will be given. Of course, that's assuming that you have been qualified for the exam."

The man walked away from the girl, who was now wiping away the stale tears from her cheeks with the palm of her hand, and stood in front of them all with his hands behind his back. He stared them all down and began reading their expressions. Kisame tried to keep his face neutral but it was a hard task when he was also trying to stop his hands from shaking so much. The speech had frightened the boy to his very core. What if he failed? What if he would never get to the final exam because he was too weak? What if he did make it to the final exam? What was it about that made it seem so "unfair" to the sensei? What would happen if he failed the exam?

"Now," the sensei began to talk again, but this time in a calm and even soothing tone, "if you are unable to make three water clones, then you will not be ready to participate in the exercises that I have planned for you in these final weeks." Some kids looked at their feet in shame. It was obvious that they wouldn't be making it to the final exam. "But," the sensei looked at the students with a proud shine in his eyes. It surprised Kisame. It surprised him even more when the man looked in his direction and gave the boy a quick smile that disappeared as soon as he looked away from him, "you are all exceptional students. In other countries, they don't let students graduate until they are twelve years-old. You all are six or seven and already know how to make clones. You are already years ahead of every country that has shinobi in it."

That raised their hopes. A new kind of energy bubbled inside of Kisame and he could feel some of his exhaustion melt away. He could do this. This was going to be a piece of cake.

"Hoshigaki!" the sensei barked suddenly, making Kisame jump and then straighten back up.

"Yes sir!" he could hear the giggles that emitted from his classmates that had been caused by his performance. His face burned up in embarrassment.

"Make three water clones."

Kisame nodded and walked up to the small pond that they used for such practice. He inhaled deeply through his mouth and exhaled silently through his nose. His clasped his hands together and made the tiger hand sign. _Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu!_ He exclaimed confidently in his head. The chakra charged through his veins and the water began to rise in three different places on the pond's surface. He concentrated as the water began to form three clones of the boy. The rippling sound of water ceased and there stood three Kisame water clones.

The clones stepped out of the pond and stood next to the original, the four of them looking at the sensei and waited. How long was he supposed to keep the clones alive? What if he lost control of the jutsu before the sensei could pass him?

Kisame shook his head and told himself to concentrate as he and the clones stared at the bald man and unimpressed children. It didn't amaze Kisame that his classmates didn't praise his accomplishment; he didn't even think any of them were paying attention to him.

The sensei huffed and crossed his arms, "Alright. You may come to class tomorrow, Hoshigaki."

Kisame sighed and the water clones melted back into water as soon as their feet touched the pond's edge. He walked back to his spot in line and watched as the rest of the class did the same thing one at a time.

* * *

A dried leaf made a crunching noise beneath Kisame's foot as the boy made his way back to his hut. He was exhausted after that water clone test. All he wanted to do now was get some sleep. That's when he remembered that he had lost his brown shirt. The boy groaned aloud in frustration. He didn't want to look for it now, heck he didn't even want to go to his hot spring because he was so tired. _Guess it'll just have to wait another day,_ he decided. Though, he was still disappointed that he couldn't find his shirt…

He paused and stared in confusion at the sight before him. Right at the foot of his hut's broken down door was his brown shirt. It was folded neatly and even had a piece of scrap cloth beneath it to keep the dirt off of it. Kisame looked to his left and then to his right, making sure that this wasn't some sort of trap. He bent over, glancing at his surroundings, and picked up the shirt quickly, standing up straight as he did so. The brown fabric felt smooth and clean beneath his fingers instead of the usual grimy and stained shirt that he was used to.

Kisame couldn't help but glare at his surroundings suspiciously as he unfolded the shirt, holding it out before him. What shocked him even more was that dark green patches had been sewn on over the holes that had once dotted the shirt. Someone had taken it and fixed it up for him. But why? Didn't they know who he was?

_This has got to be a trap of some kind, _the blue boy decided. _I should get rid of it in case someone put some weird poison on it._ As he turned to head into the woods and throw the shirt away, he noticed that there was a pair of tiny footprints in the dirt again. Kisame crouched and examined the prints. _They're the same as last time!_

A nearby bush rustled slightly and Kisame's head immediately snapped up towards its general direction. The intruder was still here. His heart pounded in his chest and his legs began to feel weak as the exhaustion he had felt during class came back to remind him that it was still there. There was no way he could take the intruder on in a fight in his condition. Then again, his appearance had frightened many people in his village before…maybe it'll work this time too…

Setting the shirt down, Kisame stood up slowly and tip-toed toward the bush, holding his breath as a way to make less noise. He stopped in front of it and waited. What if it was just a rabbit? Or a bird? _Better safe than sorry, _he thought as he reached out toward the bushel of leaves. He pushed a large clump aside, making sure that his pointed teeth were showing, and was about to scream at the top of his lungs but stopped when he saw the intruder.

Sitting there, and looking up at him, was a little girl in a fancy white and pink kimono. Her big oak colored eyes stared at him in curiosity instead of the usual fear that the boy was expecting. Kisame felt ridiculous now that he realized that a little girl had frightened _him_. He released the hand full of branches and the girl disappeared behind them. Stepping back a few feet, and mentally smacking himself for being so paranoid, Kisame made his way back to his brown shirt. _There's no way she could have poisoned it,_ he thought as he picked it up and held it close to his chest.

Another rustle and the faint _clip clop_ of sandals told Kisame that the girl had come out of her hiding spot. He looked over his shoulder and saw her standing there next to the bush she had emerged from. Her dark brown hair had purple highlights and was tied back into a short ponytail. She just stood there, staring at him as if he were the first boy she had ever seen.

He gave her an annoyed look and snapped, "What're you lookin' at?"

She blinked and replied, "You."

"Why?"

"I dunno." She shrugged. "Guess I've never seen a blue person before." her tone held no malice in it, but the fact that she called him blue still made him upset.

"Well it's not my fault I'm blue!" he retaliated, turning his body so he was facing her.

"Oh." She looked at her toes, wiggled them a bit in her red sandals, then looked back up at him, "Then whose is it?"

Kisame opened his mouth to speak, but he closed it when he realized he had no legitimate answer. He looked at the ground and shrugged but mumbled the only answer that he could think of, "My parents, I guess."

"Oh."

The two stood in silence for a while. This was the first actual conversation that Kisame had ever had with someone. Usually, when people spoke to him they were insults or even threats, which he ignored; and during school it was always orders, which he would always reply with a quick "yes sir!" But this was different. He was actually talking with someone and they were having a normal conversation. It was kind of weird. Especially since it was a girl he was talking to. He didn't like girls all too much. From what he heard, they had some sort of weird disease called "cooties" and if you get it, you start turning into a girl.

"I fixed your shirt." She said after a while. Kisame looked up at her. She was smiling at him. "Do you like it?"

He shifted his feet nervously and hugged the shirt closer to his body, not really sure what to say. This was the first nice thing that anyone has ever done for him. It felt weird too. Just like this whole conversation. All he could say was, "Yeah. Thanks."

Her smile grew and she bowed her head, "I'm Hankyu Yumi. What's your name?"

Kisame gave her a grossed out look and asked, "Why'd they name you 'beauty'?"

Yumi gave him a bit of a pouting look and replied, "It doesn't mean 'beauty'! It means bow!"

He tilted his head, "Like a bow and arrow?"

She nodded. "Now, what's your name?"

"Hoshigaki Kisame."

It was her turn to return the weird look, "Why'd your parents name you 'demon shark'?"

"My parents didn't name me!" he exclaimed defensively. "People have always called me that…so I always thought it was my name."

"Oh." Yumi looked around and asked, "Where are your parents?"

Kisame kicked at the dirt, sending up a little cloud of dust, "Dead. Least I hope they are."

"Why?"

"'Cause I don't like them." Why was he explaining everything to this girl? It was none of her business what his name was or why he hated his parents so much. But he knew that for the longest time, he had been yearning to talk with someone. Anyone; and to stop this dreaded feeling that made him feel empty inside.

"So you live here all by yourself?"

"Yeah."

"Oh…" Yumi's fingers began to play with the sleeve of her kimono, until she finally gasped and gave him a big smile, "I know! I can come visit you everyday so you don't get so lonely no more!"

Kisame was taken aback by her proposal. He wasn't too sure how to respond and all that would come out of his mouth was, "Uh…"

"Don't worry!" she reassured him, "I'll be here! Everyday! Same time as today too! Dad wants me to be outside and leave Mom alone so she can rest some more, so it'll be okay! Okay?"

She seemed so excited about the idea, and even though he didn't show it, so was he. He could finally have someone to talk with while he trained for the final exam. It would be different and weird, but so far she was the only person who wasn't afraid of him because of his appearance. There was no way he could say "no" to her.

"Okay." He replied.

Yumi's smile seemed to get even bigger, if that was even possible, and said, "Okay! I'll be here tomorrow! Same time!" she looked at the setting sun, "I better go now. Dad wants me home before dark." For a girl in a kimono and sandals, she did a pretty good job of running. "See ya tomorrow Kisame-san!" she hollered as she ran.

Kisame watched her run until he couldn't see her anymore and then looked at his brown shirt. Exhaustion washed over him again and the boy walked inside his hut and prepared himself for sleep.

* * *

There were two weeks left until the final exam. There had been twenty-five kids in Kisame's class when the year had begun. Now there were only twelve, including himself. The exercises were getting harder and harder as every day went by. At one point, the sensei had them all fight using only the water-walking technique and shurikens while carrying ten-pound bags on their backs. Nothing else. If someone fell waist-deep in the water, they wouldn't be allowed back to class the next day. It was like hell.

There wasn't even any need for Kisame to train extra hours when he got home; especially since Yumi was always there, like she had told him the day they had met. He had found out that she was only four years-old the day after they met. He would tell her every detail about training and she would listen intently. The girl actually seemed interested in what they were doing at the academy and had even wanted him to teach her how to make a water clone at one point.

"No way," Kisame had told her.

Yumi had then given him a disappointed look, "Why not?"

"Because I don't know how to teach it to you." He had replied. The girl had let it drop from there, but every time she saw him attempt a water clone, she would copy him and try to make her own. Obviously, she failed at every attempt.

Today, when Kisame was making his way from class back home, he saw Yumi staring at the tree that he used for kicking and punching practice. Her tiny hands picked at the pieces of bark that were beginning to peel away. He walked up to her, and with out turning away from the tree, she asked, "What do you do at the academy?"

Kisame gave her a puzzled look, "I tell you everyday!"

She stopped picking at the bark, "I know that, but why do they teach that to you?"

"So I can be a shinobi."

"Oh." Yumi resumed to pick at the tree and pulled a piece of bark off. She fiddled with the piece in between her fingers, "I think I wanna be a shinobi too."

A burst of laughter came out of Kisame's mouth, but he silenced the outburst quickly. Yumi gave him a stubborn glare and her lips pursed out in a pout.

The girl was serious.

"There's no way you could be a shinobi, Yumi." Kisame told her bluntly. There was no way such a tiny kid like her could survive one day with the kind of training the sensei put them through. Yumi would probably give up five minutes after the first lesson.

"Why not?" Yumi asked, determined to prove him wrong.

"Well…do you know how to punch or kick?" Kisame stared down at the short girl.

"No."

"Well, the sensei doesn't really teach you how to punch or kick. He thinks you already know how to do those things already."

Yumi looked at the piece of bark as her fingers continued to fiddle with it. She didn't look up at him for a long time.

_Did I hurt her feelings? _Kisame asked himself after the prolonged silence and lack of response from Yumi. He didn't like the silence and began to feel some weird nagging feeling that made him feel…well…bad.

"Um…" Kisame kicked absently at the ground, stuffing his hands in his pockets, "I…I could teach you how to…punch and…kick…if you wanna learn…"

Yumi looked up with a smile and nodded eagerly, "Yes please! Thank you very much Kisame-san!"

He gave her a nod of acknowledgement and kicked the ground one last time before starting the lesson.

Kisame didn't teach Yumi how to kick that day. She was wearing another fancy kimono and they were both afraid she might ruin it. It made him wonder what kind of parents she had if they were able to afford such clothes. For a four year-old girl, Yumi had a lot more enthusiasm about becoming a shinobi than most of the girls left in his class. By the time Yumi had to leave for home she knew how and where to punch an opponent.

She had to leave early. She told him that her mother wanted her home earlier than usual. But the reason why was unknown to Kisame. He assumed that Yumi had told her parents that she was hanging out with him and they didn't trust such a person to be around their little girl.

When she left, Kisame decided to go visit Samehada and the other six swords that rested with it. There were two hours left before sunset, so he would have time to get back home before dark. It took him a while to remember where the hut was located, but he was able to find it in half-an-hour.

Taking his shirt off and wiping the bottoms of his feet with it, the pale blue child entered the building. The smell of jasmine and yarrow welcomed him and the instinct to not speak followed suite. Other shinobi were there too, but they were too concentrated on their work to pay any attention to him as he made his way to the sword room.

The sight of those seven swords was as breath taking and inspiring as it was the first time he had seen them. Samehada stood out from the rest, standing upright and propped up against something that Kisame wasn't interested in. The sword eventually stole Kisame's full attention. The blue scales on the sword were pointing toward the small yellow handle, making the weapon only able to shred its opponents instead of slicing them. A fake human skull decorated the top of the handle, giving the weapon a more menacing appearance than before.

The boy wanted to reach out and grab the handle. The urge to experience what it would be like to wield something so powerful and magnificent plagued his mind like a disease. Temptation was defeated, though, when he remembered his sensei's warning about the sword:

"_If anyone tries to wield it, then spikes will spring out of the sword's handle."_

Kisame had been so entranced by the sword that he did not sense the presence of two boys, one of whom was the "prodigy" in his class and the other being a total stranger, sneaking up on him. The "prodigy" pushed Kisame with so much force that the blue child lurched toward Samehada. His shoulder bumped against the rounded scales but no harm came to him when he pulled away. A shadow began to loom over Kisame when he was about to face his assaulter.

The shadow belonged to the giant sword, Samehada, which had been dislodged from its holding place when Kisame bumped into it.

The sword began to fall forward in the direction of the three boys. Two of them ran away as soon as they saw the danger they were in, leaving a paralyzed Kisame behind to the unfeeling mercy of the falling sword.

"GYAAAAH!"


	5. Where Do Babies Come From?

Chapter Five: Where Do Babies Come From?

**Author's Note: Aren't little kids adorable? Especially when they ask such cute questions? Or even when those questions are just soooo awkward, that you just laugh at it? Yeah….**

**Here's chapter five. The ending of it should make up for its depressing beginning…I hope :/**

**Chapter Summary: Kisame develops a fear of hospitals, and wonders why Yumi's mom has a huge tummy.**

Samehada fell toward a paralyzed Kisame. The boy could only stare wide-eyed as the giant sword came closer and closer to his body. The only thing he did was take one step back and hold his arms up in front of himself in a feeble attempt to protect himself. The sword laded heavily on his arms. There was so much weight pressing against the boy's arms that his legs started to bend under all the pressure. He was going to be crushed if he didn't move soon.

In one last attempt to escape, Kisame pushed up on Samehada and dove over to the left in a clumsy fashion. However, the pointed scales had already attached themselves onto the skin of his arms. When he had gotten out of the way, the scales dug into his blue flesh and tore chunks of skin and meat from his arms.

"GYAAAAH!" Kisame screamed from the ripping pain in his arms as Samehada fell on the ground next to him with a loud _Thu-BUMP!_ Blood began to pour endlessly from his open wounds and decorated the tatami mats under him. Tears streamed out of his eyes from all the pain as the boy continued to cry out. He cradled his arms close to his chest and made sure the wounds were against his black shirt. He had to keep pressure on the wounds. That's what would stop the bleeding. At least that's what his sensei had told him.

The surroundings were not there to Kisame anymore. The only thing that existed in the world right now was the blood that coated his arms. There was so much blood…so much blood…it was beautiful in a sickening way. A part of him wanted there to be more blood splattering across the room and staining the paper doors. Another part of him wanted the bleeding to stop. The latter part of him, of course, was not as loud as the former.

_Am I gonna die?_ Kisame asked himself as he stared at his injured arms. They were bleeding…a lot…and he remembered his sensei telling them that if someone lost enough blood, they would die…_Is that what's gonna happen?_

"What's going on here?"

"Holy shit! What happened!?"

"Hey! This kid's bleeding! Someone take him to a doctor!"

"How did Samehada fall?"

"Whoa, that's a lot of blood!"

Kisame could hear their voices, but his brain just couldn't properly process what their words meant at the time. The blood…it was so pretty…it smelled like sour metal, if there was such a thing…but at the same time, it made him want to throw up. Even though he didn't know it, Kisame was still crying and screaming from the pain in his arms. Someone picked him up and propped him onto his feet. Kisame hunched over, still keeping his arms against his body, his surroundings swirling in front of him from the sudden dizziness.

He fell back over, and the same set of hands that had gotten him on his feet picked him up, but they didn't set him back down again. They carried him out of the hut and to the outside world. The person holding him was so warm…he could tell it was a man who was carrying him, but Kisame didn't care. His eyes stared at the sky as the tips of trees would occasionally get in his view. The sky was pretty too. The sun was beginning to set at that time and was giving the blue sky a faint red and orange color. It looked like fire about ready to consume something.

Kisame could feel his eyelids grow heavier and heavier as every second passed. Perhaps he could shut them for just one second…just one second…then he'd open them again…

The carrier shook him so his eyes opened all the way again.

"Don't fall asleep on me, kid." The man huffed. He was running. Kisame hadn't realized it until he saw the village gates growing closer. "We're almost to the hospital. You can sleep when we get you there, okay?"

Everything was still fuzzy to Kisame, but his nodded at the man's words anyway. He could feel the blood seeping through his shirt now. It felt cold and thick against his skin. He didn't like it. He wanted to move his arms to get the blood away from him, but when he tried, waves of merciless pain attacked his nerves and demanded that he cease his petty attempt.

He remembered things in intervals. First they were at the village gates before his vision blurred. When it returned, they were on the rooftops, the man jumping as far as he could go and running as fast as he could. They passed the village center before his vision blurred once more.

"_I think I want to be a shinobi too."_

_Yumi?_ Kisame's vision returned and his eyes were greeted with the bright florescent lights of a hospital. He was still in the man's arms, but he had stopped running and was talking to a woman. The man sounded agitated.

"Take this kid and patch him up!"

"_Him_?" the woman sounded disgusted. "But-but sir, he's bad luck! I can't—"

"_I'm_ going to make your job a living hell if you don't help this kid _now_!"

_Why is he helping me? _Kisame thought as he kept staring at the ceiling. _Why didn't he leave me to bleed out?_

"But I—" The woman started to get an excuse out.

"You know as well as I do how important this kid is to the country! His parents worked hard to make sure that we would have our seven swordsmen of Kirigakure! Now," the man passed Kisame over to the woman, who took the child reluctantly. "Patch. Him. Up."

"Yes sir." The woman mumbled and carried Kisame to an empty room. She placed him on a stiff bed and stomped over to the cabinets. Kisame wanted to close his eyes, but his gut told him not to. There was something about this woman that reminded him of an angry drunkard. She came back over to the bed and opened a bottle of peroxide, putting a cotton ball at the top, flipping the bottle over and then flipping it back up. Her warm hand grasped one of Kisame's wrists tightly, sending another wave of pain up his sensitive arm.

Kisame hissed at the pain and another tear rolled out of the corner of his eye. The nurse just began to jab the cotton swab at his arm randomly and violently, ignoring his winces and exclamations of pain.

"It-it hurts…" Kisame murmured through clenched teeth as she began on his other arm, not even bothering to get a clean swab.

"Oh, shut up," she snapped at him. The woman spent less time on his other arm, obviously getting tired of looking at his bloody arms. She stood up and walked over to the cabinet again, mumbling loudly, "'Patch him up' he says. Hmph! I'll patch him up alright. Never said it had to be done well though."

Kisame was about to sit up so he could at least try to prepare to defend himself from the fuming nurse, but his arms just wouldn't be able to hold him up long enough for that to happen. She grabbed one arm and place three pieces of gauze in random spots before taping them down with medical bandages. The same process was repeated for his other arm.

The bandages were on too tight and they weren't doing the nerves in Kisame's arms any favors. He winced and clenched his teeth from the constriction. The woman ignored him and stomped out of the room, slamming the door behind her. He needed to get out of there before someone else came in. He didn't want another person like her to take care of him.

Rolling onto his side, Kisame was able to push himself up with his shoulder and jumped off of the bed. The room started to spin a bit, but Kisame ignored it as he stumbled over to the open window. It was extremely painful to lift himself up onto the window sill, but he forced himself to deal with it. His stomach began to churn from all the pain, and when he landed on the ground, he fell over on his side and puked out the remnants of last night's meal.

He panted and spat out the remaining chunks in his mouth, his nose wrinkling at the sour smell of stomach acid. Kisame didn't have the energy to stand up, he was just too exhausted to do much of anything but rollover on his back and fall asleep.

And that was exactly what he did.

* * *

Training was hell that morning. At one point, Kisame had almost failed the exercise, but he had forced himself to finish it. No one had asked about what had happened to his arms and it didn't seem like any of them had noticed. This was bad. He couldn't do the same thing tomorrow in the condition his arms were in. He wasn't going to make it to the final exam. He was too weak.

Kisame sat up against the rotting wall of his hut, his legs pulled in to his body and his throbbing arms rested on his knees. He glared at the body of water in front of him. He hated this feeling of defeat. Passing the final exam was his chance to finally be _alive. _To finally say that he was able to withstand all the crap he had been through.

And now, because of that "prodigy", that _brat_, he was going to fail the exercises and not be eligible to take the final exam. It was because of that kid that he was going to become what everyone in the village thought he was: A nobody.

Oh, he was going to make the little worm _suffer_.

"Kisame-san?" Yumi called out.

Kisame didn't say anything. She couldn't see him, and he knew it. He would just keep quiet and wait for her to leave.

"Kisame-san? Are you here?"

He didn't hear the usual _clip clop_ of her sandals like he was used to. Instead he heard more of a scuffling sound. She was wearing something different.

She stopped calling out his name and for a while the new scuffling sound had stopped. Just as Kisame thought that she had left, the scuffling sound returned and was extremely close. The noise stopped and was replaced by Yumi's victorious voice, "Found you, Kisame-san!"

The blue child kept glaring at the water when he grumbled, "Go away Yumi."

"But, you're supposed to teach me how to kick today! Remember?"

Kisame looked at the little girl from the corner of his eye. She was wearing a pair of dirt covered shoes, dirty looking pants, and a purple short-sleeved shirt. It was a surprise to Kisame that her clothes were actually dirty; he couldn't ever imagine the girl doing anything laborious. His eyes returned to the shimmering water, "I don't want to teach you anymore."

"Why?" she whined in disappointment. That's when he heard a little gasp escape her, "What happened to your arms Kisame-san?"

"None of your business!" he snapped. What was her problem? She had no right to ask him anything. She didn't need to know that a giant sword tore most of the skin off of his bones, and he wouldn't tell her either.

"Did you get into a fight?" Yumi pressed on. He heard her step closer and a tiny hand reached out to touch one of his bandaged arms.

He pulled his arm away and his voice grew louder, "It's none of your business Yumi!"

"But your hurt!" she just wouldn't give up.

Yumi reached out once more, and this time she was able to touch one of his sensitive arms. A quick shock of pain shot through him and the boy couldn't help but screech out, "OW!" He crawled away from her, cradling the arm she had touched.

Yumi gave him a hurt look and shrank back a little, "I'm sorry Kisame-san."

That's when something snapped inside of his head. If she wanted to see, fine, let her see. Kisame stood up and took one great step toward the little girl. He held out his arms so she could see the bandages that constricted his wounds and hollered in rage, "There! There're my arms! Look at them! Are you happy now!?"

Yumi screamed at the top of her lungs and took numerous steps away from him, her oak eyes shimmering with fear. "BLOOD! YOU'RE BLEEDING!"

He turned his arms so he could see what she was talking about. Sure enough, his once white bandages were beginning to take on a bright red color as the blood started to soak through the gauze. This just made his day even worse. Kisame turned his back to the girl and kicked a rock.

"Kisame-san?" Yumi spoke in a quiet little voice, as if afraid she would provoke another burst of rage from the blue boy, "My mom can help you—"

"Is she a nurse too?" Kisame interrupted, trying to keep fear out of his voice as his mind wandered back to the mean woman.

"No. But she can still help you."

Kisame shifted his weight to one foot. He was uncomfortable jus thinking about being around adults. They didn't like him very much, and in return, he didn't like them. But Yumi didn't wait for his response. She grabbed his upper arm gently this time. It didn't hurt as much, but he could still feel the uncomfortable pressure being pressed between his arm and her tiny fingers.

"C'mon," she led him away from the hut, "Mom will take care of you."

They went through the market section of the village and hurried through numerous allies, by Kisame's request. He didn't feel comfortable walking through the crowded streets of the village, especially since it seemed that everyone was giving him the evil eye. Yumi didn't like going through the allies. She believed the really bad people liked to hide in there; but when Kisame broke out of her loose grip and began to march through the shadows, the girl hurried up to his side and held onto his upper arm once more, huddling close to him in fear.

Kisame stuck his tongue out in disgust at her clinging, but he didn't push her off. She looked genuinely scared. _I better not have cooties after this,_ he grumbled in his head.

Yumi took him to a more spacious area of the village. The buildings began to develop more space in-between them and even became shorter. He had never been in this part of the village before. It was so much nicer than the crammed market area and the rows of apartment buildings. Low fences began to appear, bordering yards and the houses inside of the barriers. The girl led him up to a polished brown and red gate, pushed it open, and took him inside of a green yard.

He didn't get to properly examine the yard since Yumi began to quicken her pace. She stopped in front of a sliding door and took her shoes off, placing them on a rock slate with three other pairs of shoes. Kisame was about to take his shirt off but he hissed in pain as soon as he tried to move his arms. Yumi looked at him and then at his feet.

"I'll be right back!" She opened the door and ran through the house. Kisame could hear her little feet thumping against the tatami mats. The noise faded and stopped for a moment but the same noise began to grow louder, and soon she came back with a rag.

She held it out to him and he took it. "Thanks." He told her and sat down on the rock slate, lifting one foot up on the opposite leg and began to wipe the dirt from the bottom of his foot. Sometimes his arm would protest against his actions, but he ignored it as he began to finish up his second foot.

He stood up and looked at the rag skeptically, wondering what he should with it. Yumi took it and shoved it into one of her pockets.

"Come inside!" she invited, walking once more into the house. Kisame followed nervously. His breathing was slow and controlled, while his steps were slow and silent. He didn't want anyone to know that he was in such a nice place. It would be embarrassing if someone, who really hated him, yelled at him in Yumi's house. The slid a door open and walked inside, "Momma?" she called.

Kisame stopped dead in his tracks, not daring to step inside the room. He didn't want an adult to see him, especially after the incident with the nurse. Instead of standing there like a fool, Kisame moved away from the open door and pressed his back against a wall. He couldn't help but listen in to the little conversation Yumi and her mother began to have.

"Are you awake Momma?" Yumi asked in her attempt at a whisper.

"Yes, dear, I am." Yumi's mother groaned and yawned at the same time. The woman had a soft and calm tone in her voice. It was the kind of voice that every mother should have.

"Can you help my friend? He got hurt."

"_Friend"?_ The word repeated in Kisame's head. He had been called many things, but "friend" was not one of them. And yet, he felt his spirit lift just a little at the thought of the word.

There was a pause before her mother spoke again, "Is he another one of your imaginary friends, Yumi?"

"No!" The girl defended. He heard her feet make a little squeaking sound as she turned on them. "Hey," she said, sounding baffled, "Where'd he go?" Her feet thumped against the floor and soon Kisame saw her little body jump out of the room.

Yumi walked up to him and snatched his hand. Another hissing noise escaped Kisame's mouth at her grip, which she loosened quickly. The girl pulled him toward the room and began to insist, "C'mon, she's just going to help!"

"N-no. Yumi, I don't—" Kisame muttered, trying to pull away from her hand. The sensitive nerves, however, convinced him to cease resistance as the four year-old dragged him into her mother's room.

The room was dark; the only source of light came from the sun's rays that poured out of a single window. There was no futon on the floor, but a raised bed instead. Sitting up, with her back against the wall, was a brown-haired woman with the same eyes as Yumi. The woman was strange looking, in a way. Her long hair drooped around her face, and although her arms and neck were thin, her belly was really big and round.

The woman stared at Kisame in shock and the boy instinctively tried once more to pull away from Yumi. _She's gonna be just like everyone else,_ Kisame thought, _She's gonna make fun of me and chase me out._

She gave him a gentle smile and an embarrassed blush came over her cheeks, "I'm sorry. I don't mean to stare it's just...why are you blue?"

Kisame looked at the ground, reluctant to answer, but the woman spoke again, "I'm sorry. I'm being rude. You're here for help."

He looked up at her in confusion. What was she sorry for? Was it really rude to stare?The plump woman turned her body under the blankets so her feet dangled from the bed, almost touching the floor. She grunted and placed a hand on her kimono covered tummy, and rubbed it for a while.

"Now, where did you get hurt?" she asked, looking at him expectantly.

"Uh…" Kisame almost whispered. He wanted to talk, but he didn't want to. Instead, he just held his arms out to the woman, who began to exam them.

She grabbed his wrists delicately, with her index fingers and thumbs, and turned his arms. A startled gasp came out of her mouth once she saw the fresh blood beginning to leak through the bandages.

"Well," she breathed out, releasing his wrists, "I bet I can fix those arms of yours. Yumi, take your friend to the living area and wait for me there."

"Yes Momma," Yumi chirped and led the boy out of the room.

The two of them waited for the woman's return. Yumi kept talking about how nice her mother was. All Kisame could do was nod in agreement. This was the first adult he had met who hadn't cursed him or treated like an outcast.

The woman came back with a large wooden box. Kisame noticed that she waddled more than walked. It just seemed so strange that a woman was thin everywhere else except for her stomach. Normally, if anyone was fat in one place then they were fat everywhere else. At least, that's what he had noticed about the villagers.

Yumi stood up and took the box from her mother and held onto it as the woman began to sit down in the strangest way. Once she was situated, the woman sighed in relief and said, "Thank you," to Yumi when the girl gave her back the box. The girl sat next to Kisame as her mother opened the wooden lid to reveal numerous medical supplies.

"Now," The woman took out a pair of small silver scissors, "let's see the damage." Cautiously, she snipped away the knot from both bandages and put the scissors away. She revealed the pieces of gauze to the open and took the once white pieces of cotton off of his wounds. Kisame clenched his jaw at the pain. Yumi's mother stared in disgust at the deep cuts in his arms.

"Good lord," she whispered. Yumi gasped in fear and Kisame saw her cover her eyes with her hands.

"Who would do this to a child?" Anger swelled in the woman's tone as she began to rummage through the box. She pulled out numerous rags and a bottle of peroxide. First she wiped the blood away with many pieces of dry cloth and was cautious around the actual cuts. After that, she took a clean rag, and after putting the peroxide on it, the woman began to clean the cuts with gentle dabs instead of the violent jabs that the nurse had given him.

Kisame believed that the process was over once Yumi's mother was done with the peroxide, but instead he saw her pull out a needle and a roll of thread. _What did she need those for?_ He cocked his head to one side in confusion.

She noticed his confusion and gave him an awkward smile, "I guess you've never had stitches before." She threaded the needle and suggested, "You might want to close your eyes."

He took her advice. Normally he wouldn't listen to any adult, besides his sensei, but he trusted this woman. She hadn't done anything mean to him so far, so why would she start now? The tip of the needle pierced through his skin near one of his cuts and Kisame opened his eyes quickly. She was beginning to sew his wounds shut as if he was a doll!

"What's your name?" she asked suddenly. She kept sewing one wound shut, and Kisame couldn't help but watch what she was doing when he answered.

"Ho-Hoshigaki…Kisame…ma'am" He figured he might as well be polite to the one person who wasn't being mean to him.

"Alright." She cut the thread, tied the ends of the string, and started on another cut. "When's your birthday Kisame?"

_When is my birthday?_ He did his best to remember. It took him a while before he answered, "March eighteenth."

She was almost done with one arm when his attention returned to her sewing. "Ah, a spring child." She chuckled just as she started sewing the wounds on his other arm. "My mother was a spring child too. Where are your parents anyway, Kisame?"

He hunched over and stared at his toes. "I think they're dead."

"Oh…I'm, sorry to hear that. Do you live with anyone else then?"

"No ma'am. I live alone."

"All by yourself?" she asked in disbelief.

"Yes ma'am. But," he looked at Yumi, who still kept her eyes covered, "Yumi comes over to visit. So I'm not totally alone."

A smile spread across the girl's face and a sigh of relief came from the woman. "Why don't you stay with anyone else?"

"No one even wants me in the village. They hate me."

She paused in her sewing, "Is that why you got hurt?"

He didn't answer her. He wanted to keep it a secret, but he felt like he had just told her "yes" by keeping quiet. The rest of the stitching continued in silence.

The sun was just about to start setting when Yumi's mother finished covering up the stitches with fresh gauze and bandages. The bandages weren't too tight and they weren't too loose on his arms. His arms felt better already, though they still ached. He thanked her for tending to his wounds.

"It was no problem." She smiled and began to stand up with obvious difficulty, "But keep those stitches in for a few weeks and try not to use your arms so much." He nodded, knowing that he couldn't keep that promise, and she disappeared into another room.

Yumi uncovered her eyes and smiled at the sight of his new bandages. "I told you she'd fix you."

"I know." Kisame replied. His mind began to mull over the fact that Yumi had called him her friend. _She's four,_ Kisame tried to convince himself that she didn't mean it, _she doesn't know any better._

"Yumi?" the girl's mother called out, "Why don't you and Kisame go outside for a little bit?"

"'Kay!" Yumi answered and beckoned Kisame to follow. He did and they sat on the green grass, watching a flock of birds fly overhead.

"Hey, Yumi?" Kisame started.

"Hm?" she looked at him with wide eyes.

"What's wrong with your mom's belly?"

"What do you mean? Nothing's wrong with it." She said matter-of-factly.

"Then why's it so big and the rest of her is so small?" Kisame asked, trying to convince the girl that she was wrong.

"Because she has a baby in her tummy!"

Kisame stood up and felt his heart skip a beat. His eyes widened in fear and he hollered, "Your mom ate a baby!?" It seemed impossible that such a nice lady was capable of such a deed.

Yumi giggled loudly and stood up, "No, silly! She didn't eat a baby! All babies come from a momma's belly."

His shoulders slumped. He didn't believe her completely, "Really?"

"Yeah!"

"But…then how'd the baby get in there?"

Yumi was about to answer, but she closed her mouth and scratched her head in thought. After a while, the girl's oak eyes widened and she looked at him in pure terror, "My…my mom really did eat a baby!"

"I told you!" Kisame shrieked. Yumi looked like she was about to cry, but he knew that she wouldn't.

"I can't believe my mom did that!" she shrieked and began to nibble at the tips of her fingers nervously.

"Can't believe I did what?" the sound of her mother's voice startled them both. The woman waddled over to them with a bag in one hand while the other rested on her round belly.

Yumi pointed at the lump accusingly, "You ate a baby Mom!"

The woman stopped in her tracks laughed. "What makes you say that Yumi?"

"Babies come from a momma's tummy!" Yumi stated.

"That's right." The woman confirmed.

"So how else did the baby get in there?" Yumi stood victoriously, thinking she had proven a point to her silent mother.

The woman's cheeks had turned a bright red color and she didn't answer for a long time. Finally, she cleared her throat and said, "I didn't eat a baby. Babies…well…they get in a mother's belly in a…different way…"

"What way is that?" Kisame and Yumi asked at the same time.

The woman cleared her throat once more and her voice became a pitch higher, "I-I'll tell you when you're older…" she went up to Kisame and handed him the bag, "Here. You can have this." She looked at the sky and then back at him, "You should probably make your way back home before it gets dark. Okay?"

Kisame took the bag and said his thanks before agreeing with the woman. It was getting late, and he should start making his way toward home. He said his good-byes and thanked Yumi's mom one more time for tending to his wounds. And with that, he left the house and walked back home.


	6. Rage Comes Before Revenge

Chapter Six: Rage Comes Before Revenge

**Author's Note: Damn, chapter six already uploaded… Thank you guys soooo much for all the reviews (I love reading them! They're my main motivation), the favorites, the alerts, and at the number of people who have read this fan-fiction!!! I really hope you guys are enjoying this fan-fic! ^_^ I'm really proud of it…though I felt really bad when I had to write that part about Kisame's arms…..I felt like such a douche-waffle…also, I kind of rushed through this chapter, so if it's not as good, then that's why XD Anyway! Please enjoy the sixth installment of **_**Becoming "The Demon Shark." **_

**Chapter Summary: Kisame, and his remaining classmates, face the final exercise before the final exam; and the prodigy's mom gets pissed at the school and Kisame.**

The bag that Yumi's mom had given Kisame rested on a rock near the hot spring while his clothes were hanging from a low branch. Kisame kept his arms out of the warm water, fearing that his stitches would somehow get undone if they even touched the surface. The water coaxed his stiff muscles to relax and soon the child's mind drifted away from the horrible day he had had yesterday and for most of today. His eyes drifted to the unopened bag and immediately curiosity probed at his mind. Grabbing the bag and pulling it closer to him, the boy opened it and pulled out its contents.

Inside, there were extra bandages and pieces of gauze. This made Kisame sigh in relief at the fact that he didn't have to be too careful with his current bandages anymore. He placed them on the jagged rock behind him and peered into the bag once more. There was another item in there, which he pulled out with care. In his hand was an onigiri about the size of his fist. He had never eaten one of these before, because of the extreme lack of money, but he had seen other people eat them. Apparently, they were supposed to be good. He took one bite out of it and loved it. At first he wanted to chomp down all the rest, but decided against it; he would eat the rest in the morning.

Kisame placed the contents back in the bag and got out of the water. His muscles felt more alive now that he had soaked them. Once his clothes were back on, the boy picked up the bag and made his way back to the hut.

* * *

Kisame stood in line with the rest of his classmates as their sensei lead them towards the forest outside of their village. Including himself, there were only ten students left and the final exam was only three days away. The walk was long and it made Kisame glad that he had saved the onigiri for the morning. Most of his classmates were nervous about going outside of the village gates, but after their sensei had threatened their lack of participation at the final exam if they didn't stop complaining, they became less nervous. Their sensei finally stopped them once they were inside of tall rows of trees surrounding them on all sides.

"Your exercise for today," the man began to explain, "is to get back to the academy doors as fast as you can. The first six students who get there first will be eligible to take the final exam."

_A race?_ Kisame questioned. This was very unlike his sensei to assign them something so simple.

"You are not allowed to kill each other. However, you may hinder your competition _without_ the use of ninjutsu or genjutsu. But be warned," he held up a finger and stared them all down, "there are other things in this forest you should be aware of."

Kisame shivered at the fact that there would be traps. He was still worried that his arms wouldn't be able to help him make it through the exercise. _But this is a race,_ he reminded himself, _feet are needed to win this._ He smiled to himself and began to look at the trees, already planning his way to get to the academy.

"Alright," the sensei clasped his hands together in a hand sign, "You may begin." A cloud of smoke and dust consumed him and the man was gone.

As soon as the man had gone away, Kisame concentrated the chakra in his veins to center at the bottoms of his feet. Along with his other classmates, the boy ran up the closest tree and began to leap from tree to tree. He passed two kids who were already starting to get into a fist fight; four other students were in front of him, but the remaining three were hidden to him. He needed to get in front of the group ahead of him. If he could stay ahead of them for the rest of the race, then he'd have a spot in the final exam.

He jumped onto a higher branch, and then onto another higher one and another until he had to look down to see the competition below. One of the students landed on a weak branch, which snapped beneath the weight. The kid screamed and disappeared beneath the branches and leaves. One kid stopped and went back to help her fallen comrade while the remaining two just shook their heads in disbelief and kept going.

Kisame began to get tired after a while. He had gotten ahead of the two other students below him, but he couldn't keep the pace up and was soon behind them once more. He had to get far ahead of them while he was in the forest. If he passed them when they were out of the trees, then they could attack him freely at anytime and he wouldn't have anywhere to fallback to. A scream from below made Kisame stop to look down momentarily. One of the kids was stationary on a branch, crying and screaming as he tried to pull out a kunai that had pierced through his hand. There were other knives in his shoulders, legs and even stomach but Kisame didn't stay behind to watch the kid try to get free. The smell of blood lingered in the blue child's nose and even began to tempt him to go back, to make the hurting child bleed even more, but he reminded himself that he had to pass one more kid if he wanted to qualify for the final exam. The final student came into view. There were just a few more yards to cross before the forest ended. He had to pass the kid now!

Just as he was about to pick up the pace, something smacked into Kisame's ribs when he was in mid-jump. The impact pushed him into the trunk of a tree, the pain throbbing through his sides as his body slumped onto the branch below. He even began to slip off, but he grasped the branch and looked up to see who his attacker was. The prodigy landed on a higher branch. He looked down at Kisame and gave him a smirk and a glare before running on ahead.

Kisame gritted his teeth and pulled himself back up onto the branch, ignoring the pain in his arms and sides. Anger fueled him as the blue child chased after the prodigy. He ignored the possibility that he might spring more traps. The only thing in the forest now was the prodigy and himself. He made sure that the kid never left his sight as he began to speed up. He was going to get him for that sneak attack and for ruining his arms.

The prodigy kept running for a long time, and Kisame kept getting closer and closer to him. Soon, the boy even stopped. Now, Kisame was really going to get him. But before he could even pull his fist back, something wrapped itself around his waist and lifted him up into the air.

"Whoa there Hoshigaki," the sensei spoke. Kisame blinked and looked at his surroundings as the sensei placed him down on the ground. He was at the academy doors with the prodigy, two other students, and the sensei. The anger in his system faded and exhaustion took over. He made it. He had made it to the finish before six others did. He was going to the final exam. For a moment, he was almost glad that the prodigy had kicked him and sparked up the rage.

When Kisame looked up at his fellow students, they were gathered around the prodigy and seemed to whisper at him angrily. The prodigy simply glared at them all and silenced them with an inaudible whisper. The boy glared at Kisame before he and his groupies stalked away.

The sensei placed Kisame back on the ground. The blue child just glared at the backs of the classmates that had just left. For a moment, he had thought that the prodigy had helped him by attacking him. He had thought that the prodigy knew that a little push over the edge was all that Kisame needed. But that wasn't it. The kid had been trying to make Kisame lose, or even make him spring a trap in his rage. But that wasn't their intention. It never was and it never will be.

Kisame clenched his fists in anger but restrained himself from running up to the prodigy and punching him square in the jaw. He wanted to get back at the kid when there was no one else around to help him. He wanted to make him suffer for as long as possible before anyone could find him. He wanted there to be blood when he would attack the prodigy….

And he wanted a lot of blood to spill from the stuck-up child's body.

* * *

"You're doing it wrong." Kisame lectured Yumi just as she finished kicking at the air. She stood still and awaited his next instructions. That was something that Yumi was good at: Following instructions. Though, she wasn't so good at asking questions on how to do things. She always had trouble putting the right words together to ask. But it didn't mean she was a slow learner either.

"Kick again." He ordered. Yumi nodded and used her right leg to kick out in a round-house kick. It was when her leg was in mid-air that Kisame grabbed her ankle. Yumi squealed and wobbled a bit as she tried to hold her balance. "You're kicking with the top of your foot," he pushed her foot back so that her toes were pointing to her left, "You need to hit with the underside of your foot."

"Okay," she nodded, still trying to keep her balance. Kisame looked at the foot that she was standing on and pointed at it.

"Pivot your foot too! Your toes should be pointing behind you."

"'Kay." She bit her bottom lip and hopped on her left foot until her toes were pointing behind her. Kisame let go of her ankle and her foot dropped to the ground. She exhaled loudly and giggled.

"Wanna do a different kick?" he asked the girl. She was starting to get tired, and it was almost time for her to leave. Perhaps he shouldn't have started her off with round-house kick.

"No thanks…I have to…go soon." She wiped the sweat from her brow and pushed a stray strand of hair behind her ear. Her eyes widened as she exclaimed, "That's right! I remember now!"

Kisame cocked his head in confusion, "Remember what?"

"My daddy said that I could be a shinobi if I get a baby brother!" An excited smile took over her round face, "So, I'll get to be like you Kisame-san!" Kisame almost laughed at her excitement. For a four year-old, she was a little odd.

Yumi said her good-byes, thanked him for the lesson, and congratulated him on qualifying for the final exams. Kisame returned the good-bye to her, and began to get ready for bed. In a way, he was glad that the final exam was three days away. In that time, the sensei said that they, the ones who were qualified, could train by themselves and didn't have to come back to the academy until the day of the exam. Kisame could finally relax and work on the Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu technique some more. He was very close to being able to create five clones.

By the time the moon had claimed the sky as its own domain, Kisame was already fast asleep in the futon, almost forgetting about the prodigy.

_Almost_.

* * *

_**-Night Before the Final Exam**__.-_

Omashi Kyon walked through the darkening streets of Kirigakure alone. Shopkeepers were closing down for the night and wives were preparing dinner for their families. Kyon was on his way back home from the Seven Swords of Kirigakure hut. He had gone there to admire the swords and to pick which one he would wield after he completed the final exam. Kyon had noticed that the shinobi that lived in the hut had cleaned up the blood from the floor. It made him laugh a bit as he remembered the big scaled sword fall on top of that blue freak in his class. That kid had been crying and screaming for so long that it had seemed pathetic to Kyon for someone to show such weakness from a little cut. There was no way that that blue freak would ever pass the final exam.

The prodigy smiled to himself, feeling proud about pushing that kid into the swords. _I'm going to pass this exam with ease,_ He told himself, _there's no way anyone can stop me._

Kyon veered off into a long alley, deciding to take the long way home. The alley was very dark but the crescent moon that shimmered in the sky helped to illuminate the path before him. He could hear water drip from the edge of a gutter and fall into a barrel full of old rain water. The sound didn't scare the boy, but the sound of something scratching at the low shingles of a building did raise the hairs on the back of his neck. Kyon looked over his shoulder, his heart pounding and breath held. Nothing. A loud sigh escaped him and he looked forward. He jumped back in shock at the sight of the shadowy figure standing at the end of the alley.

The figure just stood there. It didn't move and its shoulders didn't rise and fall from breathing. Perhaps this was just an illusion caused by the dark night?

Kyon grumbled and marched forward, confident that the figure couldn't hurt him. But as he grew closer, the prodigy noticed that the figure was about his height and age. The faint moonlight illuminated the figure's features and it made Kyon stop in his tracks just a few feet away from the kid.

It was that Hoshigaki kid from his class. His blue hair was tangled and was cut unevenly, making some strands longer and some shorter. He was glaring at him with those white eyes filled with hate.

Kyon smirked at the freak's expression and taunted him, "What're you doing here fish-face?"

No answer.

Kyon was amused. "What's wrong freak?" he took a step toward him and reached into his back pocket. His dad had given him a shiny new kunai knife this morning. The prodigy figured that now would be a good time to test it out, "Did you finally bite your tongue off?"

He still didn't reply. Heck, the Hoshigaki kid didn't even blink.

Kyon's amusement began to turn into frustration. "Hey!" he hollered, "I'm talkin' to you!" The blue kid didn't flinch when Kyon pulled out the kunai knife. The prodigy gritted his teeth and began to stomp towards the blue freak, "I'll make you talk." He muttered under his breath, "I'll give you some more scars to add to your collection!"

The prodigy lifted the kunai knife and stabbed it into the freak's shoulder. At first, the Hoshigaki kid's eyes widened and a little grunt came out of his mouth. Kyon smiled and stepped back to admire what he had done. His father had always told him that the blue kid needed to be eliminated; that he was a disgrace to the village. Guess he did his father a favor now.

The blue kid reached up to the kunai knife and grabbed it, staggering backward as he did so. The smile on Kyon's face melted away when he saw the kid's arms. They were unscathed. No trace of scars or anything that indicated that a sword had cut him days ago. This wasn't the Hoshigaki kid…it was a clone…

The clone looked up at Kyon and smirked before dispersing into a puddle. A loud screaming noise erupted into the prodigy's ears. He looked behind him and was greeted with a fist impacting with his jaw.

* * *

The real Kisame punched Kyon in the jaw as hard as he could. The prodigy grunted and fell to the littered ground and Kisame attacked. He stomped onto the kid's ribs first, deaf to the child's screams of pain as the ribs began to puncture his lungs. The prodigy began to kick at Kisame's ankles in a feeble attempt to fend him off, but the blue child just got on top of the boy, making sure he was sitting on his broken ribs, and began to punch at him.

His knuckles kept pounding through the prodigy's skin and began to crack one his cheek bones. Kyon was crying at this point from all the pain and his pleas and screams were muffled out by his sobs. There was no way Kisame was going to stop now. He wanted the kid to suffer, to beg, to _bleed_.

Fingers began to push at Kisame's face. The fingers belonged to Kyon, and the prodigy even began to scratch at the shark-like child's cheeks. Kisame clenched his teeth and pulled his fist back, landing a hard punch across the prodigy's face. Blood came out of the kid's mouth and decorated the dirt covered road. One of Kyon's fingers slipped onto Kisame's lips and the blue child went insane.

The blood looked so pretty on the ground and on the kid's face. He wanted there to be more blood. He wanted to even taste it.

Taking the opportunity, Kisame opened his mouth and bit down on Kyon's finger. The boy beneath him screamed in shock and pain. Kisame could feel thee points of his teeth digging further into the skin as Kyon tried to pull his finger out. The boy's blood seeped onto the raging Kisame's tongue. The taste of metal struck his senses first, then a bit of a sour taste and hidden in it was something sweet…something good. It crazed his senses and he felt something in his head switch off. And then, all rational thinking was replaced with savagery.

Kisame stopped punching the screaming Kyon and began to pull at the prodigy's wrist. He could feel the tension in Kyon's finger caused by the pulling. He wanted to know how much some could bleed if…

Then, the tension stopped and Kisame's head snapped back slightly, his hands still wrapped around Kyon's wrist. The prodigy was screaming hysterically now, his tears visible against his swollen and bleeding face. A warm liquid touched Kisame's fingers and began to trickle through the creases in his hands. He looked at Kyon's hand and saw blood flowing out of his shorter index finger. There was so much blood coming out of that finger, but not as much as when Samehada ripped the skin from his arms.

_More…_the savage part of Kisame growled, _more blood…more suffering…take his hand…his hand!_

He would have obeyed the voice, the savagery, but the sound of adult voices caused him to cease and push the savagery back into the depths of his mind. Lights were starting to illuminate the street just outside of the alley. The pathetic whimpering that came from Kyon caused Kisame to look down at the damage he had created.

Kyon's once pretty face was swollen and bruised in many places. His nose was twisted and bleeding and his lips were busted open. Some teeth had even fallen onto the dirt covered ground. The boy's breathing was ragged and heavy as if he were having trouble.

"What's going on over there?" an angry villager hollered. Kisame stood up and began to run out of the alley. He stopped momentarily to spit the top half of Kyon's index finger from his mouth. Then, he ran, but not back home. Not to his hut. He ran to the one place adults wouldn't look for a child:

The academy.

* * *

Kisame woke up inside of the janitor's closet. His neck was sore, and it even hurt to turn his head to the right. No one had found him that night and he was relieved. That night he even washed Kyon's blood from his knuckles and lips, though a part of him started to regret the action; after all, he could've just licked the blood off.

The blue boy shook his head to clear his mind as he exited the closet. As much as he had liked that savage feeling, there was still something about it that made Kisame frightened. He couldn't let himself go like that again. If he did, he could put someone in worse condition than Kyon. Heck, if it took total control over him then he might hurt Yumi or her mom.

The thought sent cold shivers up his body. Yumi and her mom were the only two people who were nice to him. In a way, they were his friends…at least that's what he thought they were.

"I demand that something be done here!" an angry female voice came from a room. Kisame hadn't realized that his feet had led him to his sensei's office. The blue boy hid in the hall across from the sensei's office. He couldn't see anyone in the room, but he could still hear their voices. "My poor son has been beaten to a pulp by that monster and you refuse to discipline it!"

"Calm down Minori-san," his sensei spoke in a calm voice.

"I WILL NOT CALM DOWN!" Minori hollered. Something slammed against a desk, which Kisame assumed were her hands, and she kept talking, "Everyone knows that thing assaulted my son! How many more children need to be mauled before you decide to hand that creature over to the authorities! I swear, they should never have had that child! Why, if it had been me, I'd—"

"Minori-san," even though his sensei tried to sound calm, Kisame could still hear the annoyance in his voice, "If you want justice to be served, then charges will be pressed against your son."

The woman was silent for a long time.

"E-excuse me?" she chuckled and stammered nervously, "I-I didn't quite get that. It almost sounded like you were saying that you were going to press charges against my son."

"Oh, not myself, no," the sensei cleared his throat, "the government might. Or maybe even Katashi-sama." He paused for a moment, "Yes…Katashi-sama will definitely press the charges first…"

"What kind of charges are we talking about?" Minori practically hissed vehemently, "As far as I know, my son has done nothing illegal."

Kisame could practically hear his sensei raise a curious eyebrow when he spoke, "Then your son has either lied to you, or hasn't told you much of anything."

Minori let out a loud gasp, "I'll have you know that my son tells me _everything_—"

"Did he tell you that he pushed Hoshigaki into the great sword, Samehada, and thereby causing the rips in his arms?"

The woman stuttered out noises, unable to think of anything to say.

"Hm…then I suppose your son didn't tell you that he attacked Hoshigaki first?"

"Liar." She hissed, "My son would never attack first!"

"But he did," his sensei's voice grew louder. "Katashi-sama even witnessed the whole fight himself!"

Kisame felt his heart skip a beat. Some had watched him attack Kyon? And they didn't stop him? He licked his lips nervously, wondering what kind of person this Katashi-sama was.

"IF HE SAW WHAT WAS HAPPENING, THEN WHY DIDN'T HE STOP THAT MONSTER FROM CRIPPLING MY SON!?" the woman was yelling at the top of her lungs now in pure rage.

"I'm sure he had his reasons…"

"This is bullshit!" Minori snapped, "If I'm unable to press charges, then I demand that that monster be disqualified from taking the final exams!"

Kisame held his breath. There's no way his sensei would disqualify him. He couldn't. After all, he passed the final exercise fair and square. He should be allowed to take the final exam. They just can't kick him out…

"I'm afraid I can't do that either, Minori," the sensei sighed and Kisame could hear his heavy footsteps go toward the door.

"But—" Minori started before she was interrupted by the sensei.

"You shouldn't be scolding Hoshigaki or threatening him…really, you should be thanking him for making your child incapable of taking the final exams. In a way…you should be thanking him." The door opened and Kisame hunched back into the dark hall.

A woman, who was just starting to let herself go, walked out of the room. Her long face was red from anger and shame. She stomped out of the academy, and Kisame could swear that he could see steam coming out of her ears.

"Well, Hoshigaki," his sensei sighed once the woman was gone. Kisame jumped when his sensei spoke. How long did he know that he was there? "You better get some rest. You'll be taking your final exam in six hours."


	7. The Final Exam

Chapter Seven: The Final Exam

**Author's Note: WARNING! Short chapter ahead! Chapter Seven is here now! I was listening to a lot of MSI music when I wrote this chapter XD…it was kind of weird writing the fight scenes when Capitol P was blaring in my ears XD hahaha…yep. Well, enjoy this seventh installment of **_**Becoming the Demon Shark **_**and have a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a Happy New Year! **

**Chapter Summary: The final exam is here, and Kisame finds out that he's the only one with the mental advantage needed to pass.**

There were only five of them now. Kisame had rendered Kyon incapable of taking the exam last night, though that wasn't his main purpose for attacking the boy. Only one of them would pass this exam…and Kisame was going to make sure that he was the one who passed.

He stood alone in an old classroom; at least that's what he thought the place had been. The room had been emptied out of all furniture years ago, and the blackboard had been ripped from the wall at some recent point in time. The windows had numerous cracks spreading across the surface like spider webs. Sunlight shone through the beaten windows and illuminated the medium-sized room. The room smelled like something was rotting deep in the cracks of the floor boards.

A door opened and his sensei walked into the room with one of Kyon's favorite groupies. The boy gave Kisame an angry glare. It was obvious that he had been told what the blue child had done to the prodigy. The man closed the door and stood in between the two boys, eyeing them both with his usual serious look. But his eyes carried a hint of regret in them once he had looked the two over.

"Congratulations," the sensei started in a low tone, "you have made it to the final exam. As you already know, only one of you will pass this test. But before I tell you what your test will be, let me just say that I'm proud to have been your sensei." He took in a shaky breath and continued, "Your test is a fight to the death. You may use any techniques you want, and any weapons that you have or can make. There is no time limit. But if one of you refuses to kill the other, then I am required to kill you both."

Kisame's eyes widened and his heart began to beat faster. _A fight to the death…?_ The thought of killing someone kind of scared Kisame. _How can I kill someone? I'm only seven!_ He was hoping that his sensei was joking, but the solemn look on the man's face told them both that he wasn't joking. Kisame looked at his opponent and saw him shaking in terror. The thought of killing someone had frightened the boy…but it didn't frighten Kisame.

He wasn't nervous about killing someone; he just didn't know how to take a life. Would Kyon have died last night if he hadn't stopped pummeling him? If that's all that was needed to kill someone, then Kisame knew he could do it. He was confident, that he could kill this kid with no problem.

"Don't think of each other as classmates anymore," the sensei kept going on in his lecture, "you are now enemies. Your other opponents are being told the same thing as you are right now. In order to be a true shinobi, you need to be able to take a life without hesitation, without remorse. Now," he lifted his hand for a moment, and then dropped it down, "begin."

None of them moved. Kisame preferred to wait for his opponent to make the first move, just so he could see how they fight. The boy in front of him was still shaking, even as his hand reached into his pocket and pulled out a kunai knife. "You…you hurt Kyon-kun really badly…" the boy spoke, his voice shaking almost as much as the rest of him was, "Kyon-kun…Kyon-kun was my best friend…now I can't hardly recognize him anymore 'cause you beat him up so bad…" the boy glared at Kisame. Even though his next words were supposed to be full of bravery, his eyes told Kisame that he was terrified of him, "I'm gonna make you pay for it!"

The boy charged and threw the kunai knife at Kisame. He side stepped and heard the kunai lodge itself into the wall. The boy kept charging and Kisame just stood still, waiting for the perfect opportunity to attack. When his opponent pulled a fist back to punch, Kisame lifted his front foot and side-kicked the boy right in the gut. He could feel the air rushing out the kid and heard him gasp.

The kid fell to the ground and curled up in a ball, coughing and crying as he tried to regain his breath. Kisame hovered over him. It was pathetic really, that the kid could go down to easily. Heck, he hadn't even kicked him that hard. Sighing loudly, Kisame turned around and strolled over to where the kunai had landed. Just before he bent over to yank the knife out of the wooden floor, something sliced through his shirt and dug into his skin.

First there was nothing, and then stinging pain attacked his mind as he finally realized that the kid had gotten out another kunai and had cut into his back. He screamed out in pain and felt the blood make its way out of his new wound. Baring his teeth and turning around to face his attacker, Kisame glared at the boy, breathing heavily as to not scream out again. The boy's smug smile morphed into a terrified frown.

Oh, it was _on_ now…

The new kunai fell from the boy's shaking hands as he took a step away from the angered Kisame. The boy tried to turn away to run, but Kisame just punched him in the nose. Blood came out of the kid's nose as he fell on his back, his hands grabbing the broken nose and mouth open to let loose his screams. God, he screamed like a little girl. It was so annoying to Kisame. The blue child knelt down and grabbed the sides of his opponent's head. He lifted his head up just slightly before slamming it back down into the ground. Kisame continued to do this even after the boy had stopped screaming.

It wasn't until his sensei cleared his throat that Kisame paused to look at the man. "That's enough Hoshigaki," the man muttered, "He's dead now."

Kisame looked at the head that was between his hands. At some point the kid had released his broken nose and had decided to let the blood flow down the sides of his face. His eyes were had rolled to the back of his head and his hair was damp with the blood that came from the back of his head. Kisame let the head go, listening to it thump against the floor, and backed away from the still body.

The sensei strode over, picked the dead body up, and walked out of the room with it. Kisame just stared at the little smudge of blood that the dead boy had left behind. He was shaking from all the adrenaline surging through is veins. He had just killed someone out of anger. Uncontrollable anger. And he didn't feel any regret.

It didn't take Kisame very long to figure out why the room smelled like something was rotting.

_**Next Opponent.**_

Kisame made sure that he didn't expose his back to this kid. A fist came at him and Kisame dodged it with ease. This kid liked to hit hard, Kisame could tell from the dull pain that came shortly after blocking a kick or a punch. Kisame buckled over when he was suddenly kneed in the stomach. He opened his mouth and gasped for air. Knuckles made impact with the side of his face, causing the blue child to stumble and stagger. The larger kid pushed Kisame to the ground and he uttered out a grunt when he fell on his rump.

The kid lumbered over slowly, and the blue child looked around frantically for something to attack the kid with. That's when he saw it: The kunai knife from his previous fight.

Just as Kisame yanked the knife from the floor his opponent lifted his foot and prepared to crush the shark-like child's ribs. Kisame held the knife up towards the foot that was coming down at him. He could feel the knife pierce through the underside of the sandal and then through the kid's foot.

He hollered and pulled his foot away. Kisame stood up and watched as the kid tried to put his foot down. The knife just went deeper into the skin and the boy had to hop on one leg to keep his balance.

Kisame rushed at the kid, who threw an awkward punch at him when he got close enough. But the blue child grabbed his wrist and lifted his left foot. His bare feet crashed down upon his opponent's knee and he could hear the sensitive bone crack out of place.

The larger child screamed in pain and fell to his side, his hands trying to decide which injury to cradle. Kisame bent down and pulled the kunai knife out of the boy's foot slowly. He didn't mean to pull it out slowly and cause more pain for the kid, but the weapon seemed to have taken a liking to the foot and it was hard to get it out. The kid sobbed from the pain in his foot and from his broken knee. Kisame stood over the crying kid with the bloody kunai knife in one hand and stared. It was a good thing he had found the knife, otherwise he might not have won this fight.

Lifting the small weapon over his head, the blue child knelt down and plunged the point through the kid's eyeball. The sobbing was replaced by a gurgling noise, but even that began to stop as Kisame stood and stared at the dead body. This time, he wasn't shaking from the adrenaline. No, he had gotten used to the natural drug in the middle of the fight. In fact, he wasn't shaking at all. He was calm, and content, and even a bit…

…happy…

_**Final Opponent.**_

_God damn it!_ Kisame cursed to himself as his left arm dangled limply at his side with five shuriken lodged into the skin. The girl in front of him breathed heavily, her right eye swollen shut and bleeding from the punch he had given her moments ago. She was fast; faster than he was. And she had a lot of weapons. It sucked!

Blood dripped from his fingertips and hit the ground in a slow rhythmic pattern. There was no way he was going to lose to a girl! Especially since she was his last opponent. He had to kill her…he wanted to kill this little girl!

Using his right hand, Kisame reached for one of the shuriken in his left arm. There was no pain when he pulled the star-shaped weapon out; the adrenaline had numbed out all the pain. The girl twitched and reached for another weapon, but Kisame had thrown the shuriken quicker than she had expected. The weapon dug into her hand and she squealed.

Kisame charged at her and round-house kicked the girl in the face. She didn't fall like the others had. Instead, she stumbled and kept her balance. Kisame panted, exhausted from all he had done today. He wasn't even sure he could finish her. Right now, his hut and futon sounded like such nice places to be at.

"Everyone hates you!" she screamed at him. Her outburst caught Kisame off guard and he cocked his head at her in confusion, "Even if you become a shinobi, you'll be alone! Do everyone a favor and drop dead!"

Everything about her was annoying. Her voice, her looks, her hair, her fighting style…everything. She was still talking when Kisame rolled his eyes and stood up straight. He grabbed her lower jaw, his fingers getting in her mouth and holding on to the backs of her teeth. She mumbled in surprise and her hot breath brushed across his sore knuckles.

"Just shut up." He mumbled as he yanked his hand downward, taking her lower jaw with him. Her body slumped down and Kisame dropped the body part that was in his hand. She twitched once and was still.

Kisame stepped back and sat down next to his standing sensei, leaning his head against the wall. He was tired, sore, and was starting to feel the pain from his injuries as the adrenaline started to reside.

"Congratulations Hoshigaki Kisame," his sensei spoke after a long silence, "you've made it to the ranks of gennin."


	8. Joy and Sorrow

Chapter Eight: Joy and Sorrow.

**Author's Note: Okay! Chapter Eight! I'm glad everyone liked Chapter Seven! As a way to make up for the shortness of the previous chapter, I have made this one slightly longer! Though, it's a bit…sad XD. Sorry, I've got a thing for tragedies ^_^. Well, thank you for all the reviews, favorites, and alerts! I really appreciate them! Now, please enjoy the eighth installment of **_**Becoming the "Demon Shark."**_

* * *

**Chapter Summary: Kisame becomes a gennin and Yumi gains a sibling.**

The academy nurse had bandaged all of Kisame's wounds after the exam. She wasn't mean like the hospital nurse, but she wasn't too excited about treating him either. None of his wounds had been so deep that he needed stitches, so the woman had just cleaned them out and had covered them up with gauze and bandages. She warned Kisame in a melancholic tone to not use his left arm a whole lot. The boy merely nodded and walked out of the office when he was dismissed.

Waiting for him in the hall was his sensei. In his hand was a large headband. At the sight of the headband, the blue child became eager to receive the shinobi symbol. He stood in front of the tall man, who just looked down at him with an expressionless face. The man held the headband out, "You're a gennin now," he told him, "you're going to have a new teacher, a new schedule, and a brand new life." He grabbed Kisame's hand put the heavy headband into his small hand. "You'll meet with your new teacher at the village gates on the day after tomorrow at noon. That should be enough time for you rest up."

Kisame wanted to smile. He wanted to cheer and even hug the man for everything he's done. But that's not what shinobi did after an achievement. They were always calm on the inside and outside. Now that he was a shinobi, there would be no room for sharing joy with others. The boy just nodded in reply, and when his former sensei released his grip on the headband, Kisame began to immediately tie the symbol around his forehead. The young gennin made sure the knot was tight before lowering his hands to his sides. It felt so heavy upon his head and he was afraid it would slip off his head…which it did.

The metal and cloth blocked his vision and the boy grumbled in embarrassment and aggravation. He pushed it back up, but the headband slipped down to his mouth as soon as his hands pulled away. Before he could try again, his former sensei grabbed the headband and pulled it down so that it hung around his neck.

"Maybe when you've grown a bit," the man explained, "you'll be able to wear it on your head."

The gennin just stared at the man and nodded. The man then turned on his heels and marched away, leaving blue shinobi behind to his excited thoughts.

* * *

Kisame had walked proudly back home that night. Instead of anger or hate, the villagers had looked upon him with fear or didn't even look at him at all. Their fear had made Kisame feel like he was stronger than them; like he could take on the whole village and win. It was a weird feeling. A part of him knew that he would lose in a heartbeat. But the savage part of him, which had been stirring uneasily throughout the whole final exam, loved their fear. Their fear was like food to it, just like the sight of blood drove it crazy.

When the blue gennin got home, he began to get himself dinner. The final exam had asked a lot from him and he was hungry. He used his usual technique for catching fish and was successful. Four fish began splashing about in the muddy puddle that had once been a water clone. Kisame grinned and killed the fish easily. But it wasn't until he had stabbed them each with a stick that he heard a strange noise. And it was nearby.

Kisame stopped what he was doing and began to look at his surroundings intently. The noise continued and he tried to figure out what it was since it was muffled and choked. Then, he heard a whisper being sobbed out by a little girl.

"Mommy…" she said. He knew that voice. Even though it was strained and quiet, he knew who it was. Kisame stood up, with his hands empty, and went to the bush that he had first found his friend in. Very carefully, he pushed the branches and leaves to the side and saw Yumi sitting on the ground, hugging her knees to her chest with one arm while she bit into her other arm in an attempt to keep her whispers unheard.

Yumi looked up at him with puffy blood-shot eyes and a tear stained face. Yumi pulled her arm out of her mouth and kept staring at him silently. She had been crying. Those noises he had heard were of her crying. But what had made her cry? An injury? A person?

"Yumi," Kisame said, "what happened?" as soon as the words left him, she began to cry again. He didn't mean to make her cry again; all he wanted to know was what was wrong with her.

Before he could do anything to calm her down or even ask the question again, Yumi managed to speak in between her sobs, "Muh-my mom is-is-dead!"

* * *

Kisame sat next to Yumi in front of the fire he had made inside of his hut. He was in shock after she had told him her mom was dead. In fact, for a split second, he had wanted to sit next to her and cry too. After all, Yumi's mother was the first adult who had treated him like a human being. But then the weight of his headband had reminded him that he was a shinobi now. He had to be strong in situations like these. So, he had helped Yumi up and took her inside of his hut. Inside, he had started a fire from small twigs and branches and had cooked the fish, which he had shared with the girl. She had eaten her share half-heartedly, but she ate it all.

The sun was starting to set and the temperature began to drop ever so slowly. The crackling fire kept them warm and the two kids sat in silence. Kisame looked at Yumi, who was staring gloomily at the fire. She had stopped crying a while ago, but her eyes were still blood-shot and her cheeks were red from the fire's heat. He wasn't too sure what to do in a situation like this. He didn't want her to cry again and he didn't know which actions would make her cry or not. Perhaps starting a conversation would get her mind off of her mother…

"How'd she die?" Kisame bit his tongue as soon as the words came out of his mouth. Sure he wanted to know, but it felt wrong to ask Yumi about it now.

Yumi sniffled and answered, "I don't know…it started when the doctor came to our house…"

* * *

_I was outside by the pond when I saw the doctor rushing up to our fence. He came inside the garden just as I heard Father walk out to greet him. I heard the doctor ask Father, "How far along is she?"_

"_I believe it's contractions," Father said. Then he and the doctor went inside. I kept playing with the tadpoles that were in the pond. I didn't know what they were talking about, so it must not have concerned me. _

_I found a pretty yellow flower in the garden and wanted to show it to Mommy. She liked flowers. With flower in hand, I went inside barefoot, and jogged towards Mommy's room. The doctor and a maid came out of Mommy's room. The doctor had blood all over his white coat and the maid carried Mommy's sheets. _

_The doctor gasped when he saw me, but the maid took my hand gently and said, "Come with me Yumi-chan." The maid was shaking and she sounded frightened. I knew something had happened to Mommy instantly._

"_What's wrong with Mommy?" I said, pulling my hand from the maid's. When the maid didn't answer, I turned to the doctor for one. Even though he was talking, I couldn't understand what he was saying because he was stuttering so much. I ran passed them, ignoring their calls and protests, and opened Mommy's bedroom door. _

_Father was standing next to Mommy's bed, cradling a bundle of blankets in the crook of one arm. Mommy was in bed but there was a white sheet completely covering her. How could she breathe properly with that sheet over her face? I walked up to the bed and was about to take the sheet off when Father said, "Don't do it Yumi."_

_I don't know what it was, but there was something about the way he said it that made me scared of what was under the sheets. "Why?" I asked. _

"_Because your mother is in a deep sleep." As he spoke, I began to notice that Mommy wasn't breathing and the pile of sheets that the maid hadn't picked up yet were covered in blood. _

_I gulped, "When will she wake up?"_

_Father didn't answer for a long time, "Never." He finally said._

_I knew what that meant. I had a cat once. Then it had fallen asleep one time and wouldn't wake up. When I had told Mommy, she said that the cat would never wake up because it was dead. And now…_

_My mother was dead._

_I didn't believe him. And even though Father yelled, "STOP" I still pulled the sheet off of Mommy's body. Mommy was so pale that it scared me; it even made the bundle in Father's arm cry. The flower fell out of my hands and I ran away when I saw Mommy lying there. Death had come to my house and it had taken Mommy. It wasn't safe there. Not anymore. So I ran to the other safest place that I knew. _

_Kisame-san's hut. _

* * *

Kisame kept looking at Yumi sympathetically after she finished her story. Her mother was dead, and she came here for help. But he didn't know what to do to help her.

"I'm sorry." He said to his friend. It was all he could think of to say. He placed a hand on her shoulder, the stained silver kimono she wore felt soft underneath his fingers, "I'm so sorry Yumi."

She sniffled once more and touched the hand that was on her shoulder. When she turned her head to look at him her hand pulled away from his and she whispered, "There's blood on your face!" then she saw his hands, "And your hands!"

Kisame took his hand away from her shoulder and looked at them. He had forgotten to wash the blood of his opponents from his skin after the final exams. What would he tell her? He couldn't tell her that he had killed two kids, especially since her mother had just died. Yumi would run away in fear. The savage part of him wanted her to be afraid of him, but the part of him that considered her a friend didn't want her to be afraid. He wanted her to stay.

"What happened Kisame-san?" Yumi asked.

"Um…" Kisame rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "It…it came from the fish."

"Oh…" she yawned and rubbed her eyes. She looked tired.

"You should start getting home," Kisame suggested. "You know…before it gets too dark."

The girl shook her head slowly, "I don't wanna go home. I'm too scared."

"I'll walk you home then."

She shook her head defiantly, pulling her knees to her chest.

Kisame sighed, "Well, you can stay here for a little while longer, but you'll have to go home soon. Your dad will be worried."

Yumi nodded, "Okay."

* * *

Kisame woke up with the little rays of sun shining through the cracks in his hut and onto his face. He yawned loudly and sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. It was nice to sleep in and to have a day off. He looked over at his futon and saw Yumi sleeping in it. Last night she had fallen asleep before Kisame could take her back home. And no matter what he had done, she wouldn't wake up. So he had brought his futon out and had put her in it. His neck was a little sore from sleeping on the floor, but he knew a dip in the hot springs would take care of it.

The blue boy shook Yumi violently, and shouted, "YUMI! WAKE UP!" she groaned and Kisame stopped shaking her when she opened one eye. The girl looked at him with that one eye and Kisame said, "It's about time you woke up Yumi." Her one eye closed at once and a light snore came from her.

Kisame blinked and shook her lightly, "Yumi?" he called. Nothing. "Yumi?" he said a little louder and shook her a little harder. No response. She had fallen asleep…again. "YUMI!" he yelled shaking her violently again. "C'mon Yumi! This isn't funny!" she still wouldn't wake up.

He grumbled loudly and ruffled his hair in frustration. How the girl could still sleep was unknown to the boy, but he knew what would wake her up. Cold water. He stood up and walked out of his hut. It was still morning so it was a frightening surprise to Kisame when he saw a man standing in front of his hut. The boy froze at the sight of the man, who looked at him with a disgusted expression. The man had a dull dark green kimono on with a sheathed katana hanging at his side. He had the same hair color as Yumi but Kisame didn't make the connection that he was her father.

"Hello." The man started with a strained smile.

Kisame stood up straight and made sure his headband was in clear sight, "Hi."

"Have you seen a little girl recently? She's four years old with a silver kimono and is called Yumi. Have you seen her?"

"Why should I tell you?" Kisame replied. He didn't like this man. He was just like the rest of the villagers.

The man's fake smile turned into an angered frown, "Because I'm an adult and you're a child, that's why."

Kisame stood his ground, "Doesn't mean you're a good adult! How do I know you're not trying to hurt her?"

The man smirked, "Because I'm her father."

The blue child's aggressive stance shifted to a nervous one. This was Yumi's dad? He was expecting him to be a lot like Yumi's mother. Not as another villager. Unconsciously, Kisame glared at the man and motioned inside of his hut, "She's asleep."

Yumi's father nodded and walked inside of the hut. Kisame stayed where he was even as the man came back out with his daughter sleeping soundly in his arms. The man didn't acknowledge Kisame's presence when he walked past the boy and made his way to the village. Kisame watched the man go until he couldn't see him anymore.

Kicking at the dirt in anger from the experience, the boy made his way to the hot springs to soothe the pain in his neck.


	9. The New Sensei

Chapter Nine: The New Sensei

**Author's Note: Yo! Thanks for all the reviews, alerts and favorites everybody! I'm always trying to wait for at least two new reviews for each new chapter before updating XD Anyway! Here's chapter Nine! Please enjoy! :D**

**Chapter Summary: Kisame meets his new, if slightly goofy, sensei.**

* * *

Noon came and Kisame was by the village entrance, waiting for his new sensei, just like his former had told him to do. Yumi didn't revisit yesterday after her father had picked her up. Normally, when a child doesn't like an adult, they blame every bad thing on them. Even if the event isn't connected to the older human; however, Kisame wasn't that kind of child. When the whole population of the village hates you, it's hard to blame everything on them when they blame everything on you. So he had come to see some reasoning behind things. Yumi's mother had just died. The little girl probably spent all of yesterday crying again or being in her room all day.

It made Kisame's heart sink a little when he thought about it. He liked Yumi and her mother. They were nice to him. But now that the woman was gone, Yumi was the only one nice to him. He hoped she wouldn't die either. That would suck.

A person cleared their throat and Kisame faced them excitedly, hoping it was his new sensei. The man had no headband, but it wasn't that piece of information that told Kisame that this guy was not his sensei. The guy was _huge_. Not "huge" with muscles but "huge" with rolls and rolls of fat.

The man cleared his throat again, making the fat on his chin and neck jiggle in a way that made Kisame's eye twitch, "Yer Kisame, right?" the man huffed as if he were out of breath. Kisame only nodded, afraid that vomit would come out of his mouth if he opened it. The fat man ran a hand trough is thinning hair and huffed, "Good. Yer sensei wants you to meet him somewhere else…I think he's at the northern river…yeah, he's at the northern river." And with that, the man waddled away, coughing and clearing his throat at every step he took. Kisame shivered at the sight and turned away quickly.

The northern river was located where its name said it was: North. It was also located on the complete opposite side of the village from where he was now.

What a wonderful sensei this guy was turning out to be.

With a sigh, the blue gennin turned around and began his walk to the other side of the village where his sensei awaited for him.

* * *

He was supposed to meet his sensei at Noon; but Kisame arrived at the Northern River an hour late. It was hard to get around the village with all the fog that surrounds it. Kisame stood on a small ledge that hung out towards the river. The current seemed calm and easy to swim in, but the depth was unknown to the boy. He idly kicked a pebble into the river and watched it disappear beneath the cold surface.

"So you must be the new graduate," a cheerful male voice boomed from behind Kisame. The gennin's muscles tensed in surprise and he turned around quickly to face the new being. The speaker was a fairly tall man, about five foot nine, and seemed to be in his early thirties. His hair was short, spiky, and dark red. A few freckles decorated his lean face along with a few battle scars that ran across his cheek and neck. The headband he wore was tied snuggly on his leather belt with numerous dents and scratches etched into its metal plating. He wore a white shirt that had an angry dog face printed on the front, long tan shorts, and wooden sandals.

Kisame thought the man looked absolutely ridiculous for a shinobi. The man raised an eyebrow at him and said in his still cheerful tone, "Well? Are you?"

"Uh," Kisame blinked. The attire was so distracting, "am I what?"

"The new graduate," the man reminded the boy, "Hoshi…um…Hosi…gaku? Hoshigaku Kisome?"

The gennin's teeth clenched behind closed lips, "My name is Hoshigaki Kisame."

The man snapped his fingers and smiled brightly, "That's it! So, you're him right?"

Kisame nodded.

"Excellent!" the man smiled again and ruffled Kisame's blue hair with his giant hands. "Glad you could make it! Though you're a bit late…but! No worries! I'll make sure to make you punctual before the chuunin exams even start. I'm your new sensei by the by," He took his hand off of the boy's head, that big happy smile still on his face.

This man didn't seem to be scared of the shark-like boy. But Kisame had seen people in the village acting nice to one another; the very next day they would be smiting each other behind their backs. For all he knew, his new sensei's smile was a fake one; and it made him hate the facial expression. At least his last sensei didn't hide his loathing behind fake happiness. Kisame thought he was staring at the man with no emotion, but really anger was written all over his face.

His new sensei looked at the boy in confusion and asked, "What's wrong Short-Stuff?"

Kisame could feel his eye twitch at the nickname, "I'm not short!"

The man smirked and began to joke around, "If I've got to look down to see you, then you're short."

The boy had to bite the inside of his cheeks to keep himself from smiling at the witty remark. "Well…what if I get taller than you?"

"Then you can call me short," the man smiled, "But until then, _you're_ the one who's short."

The gennin made a mental to note to make himself grow taller…but how he'll do that was unknown to him still.

"You can call me Hideo-sensei." The man finally introduced himself. "And I'll be your new sensei from now on."

Even though Hideo had almost made Kisame smile, the boy still didn't really like him. He seemed too happy and too kind. Even though Yumi was happy when Kisame was first getting to know her, the happiness just seemed okay with her. And the kindness just seemed natural to her mother too. But for a man to be happy and kind just seemed weird.

Hideo made a downward motion with his hand, "Sit down." And they both sat. The ground was a little soggy from being so close to the river and from the fog, but it didn't bother either shinobi. The man sighed and smiled again at the boy, "Well, I bet you're expecting me to begin teaching you some secret and powerful techniques, huh?"

The blue boy nodded.

"Well, too bad." The smile stayed on the man's face, even as most of Kisame's hopes sank to the bottom. "I won't be teaching you those techniques until you can wield Samehada for at least five minutes."

The name of the sword sent shivers down Kisame's back and his arms began to ache at the memory of the sword's scales digging into his skin. "Why that sword?" Kisame asked, "Can't I have a different one?"

"Nope!" Hideo grinned, "That's the sword that the Mizukage wants you to use one day. And his word is law."

The gennin crossed his arms and stuck out his lips in an angry pout.

"So," the man began, "for the rest of today, I'm just gonna talk and tell you the new rules you need to follow. So get comfy."

Kisame didn't budge.

"You will always address me as either 'sensei' or 'Hideo-sensei.' Either is fine. All of your responses to my questions will either be 'yes sir,' 'no sir,' or 'I don't know sir.' If I hear any of this 'yeah,' 'uh-huh,' 'okay,' 'sure,' or 'whatever,' crap, I'm gonna smack you on the head." Hideo raised an eyebrow, "You understand?"

Kisame sighed, not really paying attention to what the man was saying, "Yeah." And immediately, a fist came down onto the top of his head. "Ow!" he exclaimed, grabbing the spot on his head where his sensei had hit him.

Hideo grinned, "Do you understand?"

"Yes!" Kisame said quickly, his mind distracted by the pain on his head.

The man rolled his eyes and hit the blue hands that were covering up the gennin's head. Once again, Kisame shrieked out at the sudden strike and yanked his hands off of his head. "Are you sure you understand Hoshigaki?" Hideo questioned, "Or is the third time a charm?"

"Yes…sir! Yes sir!" Kisame added quickly before his new sensei could hit him on the head again.

"Uh-huh," the red-haired man looked at his student suspiciously. "Moving on...oh, you will be polite to others." Kisame looked at the man as if he were crazy just as he pointed a finger at the gennin, "If I hear from anyone in the village that you were rude then you'll be doing extra push-ups."

Kisame glared at the man's warning, "Then you'll be hearing a lot of complaints."

Hideo's once happy face melted into a more serious one. It definitely suited him. "And why's that?"

The gennin didn't avert his eyes, "Because the whole village hates me. They'll think I'm being rude by just talking to them."

His sensei's face softened a little bit, "Well, there's bound to be someone in the village who doesn't hate you."

Kisame was about to say 'no' but then he remembered Yumi. The only friend he had. He felt guilty that he had forgotten about her. "Just one person," the boy mumbled.

"See?" Hideo grinned, "If one person likes you, then more will too."

"But she's only four!" he argued, "She doesn't know that it's bad to be friends with someone like me." The subject was starting to make the boy depressed. He hugged his knees to his chest and rested his cheek on his knees. It was true that it was bad for Yumi to be friends with him. The other kids would make fun of her when they found out and it seems like her dad will yell at her for it too. He was nothing but trouble for her. It was bad to be friends with him…

"And what kind of 'someone' are you?" Hideo asked in a low voice.

Kisame took in a deep breath and called himself what the whole village had labeled him as, "A monster." Even though he had dealt with the hate of the villagers for all of his life, Kisame never realized how much their words really hurt him. Even though their actions made him angry and forced him to isolate himself from their cruelty, he was still just a kid. And it hurt.

"Hey," Hideo kept his voice quiet as he placed a comforting hand on Kisame's foot, "look at me Hoshigaki." The gennin did as he was told, resting his chin on his knees. His sensei stared at the boy square in the eyes before continuing, "You are not a monster. Monsters kill innocent people in their sleep and find joy out of it. Last time I checked, you were a shinobi." He paused, "Are you a shinobi Hoshigaki?"

The gennin nodded.

"Then you're not a monster." The man smiled, "Shinobi protect their village and everyone in it. As a shinobi, you are trained to fight the real monsters that live outside of the village. One day, _you_ are going to save this village from a monster. And when that day comes, everyone will be grateful." The words made Kisame's hopes rise again. He felt so warm inside that he had forgotten what had made him depressed in the first place. "So, you're going to be polite to people, right?" Hideo added in.

"Yes sir." Kisame said.

The smile came back to Hideo's face, "Good." The man ruffled the boy's blue hair once again, an annoyed grumble coming from the boy. "Now, I expect you to be here tomorrow at five in the morning. So go home and get some rest."

Kisame's jaw nearly dropped to the ground, "Five in the morning!?" he shrieked.

"Yes. That's what I said."

"But!" the gennin began to protest, "But that's so early!"

"I know," Hideo nodded in acknowledgement, "and you won't be going home 'til four in the afternoon." A disappointed groan came from the boy as he hid his head in fear of tomorrow. The man stood up and swiped the dirt and grass from his butt, "I'll see you tomorrow Hoshigaki. Bright an' early."

* * *

Kisame made his way back home. His new sensei's words of encouragement gave the boy the confidence he needed to not walk through as many allies as he normally would have. Every time he saw someone looking at him, he would just smile and nod at them and continue walking. He did this to a couple of women, who had been taking a stroll, and he could hear them stop in their tracks and felt their confused gaze as they watched him walk on. Then, one woman muttered to the other, "I thought you said that he would glare at anyone he saw?'

It was near two when he decided to sit down and take a break. His heart had been beating from the fear that someone would attack him for being polite. But instead, he had made people surprised; and in the good kind of way too. Perhaps he should be polite to everyone more often?

"Give it back!" a child pleaded. Kisame looked to his left and saw a group of kids, who were older than he was, tossing a stuffed toy amongst each other. In the middle of the group was a little boy who seemed to be Yumi's age. One of the older boys held the toy in front of the little child and shook it teasingly. When the little boy reached out to grab his toy, the older one would yank it up in the air and toss it to one of his buddies. Their behavior was as disgusting as their laughter.

Kisame stood up and stomped toward the group. "Hey!" he hollered at them. The older boys turned to look at him, defiance and aggression in their stances. But as soon as they saw who it was that was approaching them, their threatening faces became frightened. "Give him back his toy," he ordered them. The older boys just stood in shock. "Go on. Do it!" Kisame raised his voice. The one holding the toy tossed it at Kisame, who caught it, and they ran off.

The little boy stood still, wiping away a stray tear and still sniffing. The blue gennin went to the kid and held the toy out to him. "Here's your toy back."

The little boy snatched the toy from Kisame's hand quickly and glared. "I didn't need your help! I could've gotten it back on my own!"

Kisame was going to say something, but then a woman called out, "Raiga-kun! Time to come home!"

A small blush came over Raiga's face, but the boy ran off to his mother, "Coming Momma!"

The blue gennin watched the boy leap into his mother's waiting arms before continuing his walk back home.

* * *

He was almost home now. He recognized the neat and colorful part of the village that Yumi lived in. There were so many houses in this area that it seemed to be a village all by itself. Just as he went by Yumi's house, the little brown and purple-haired girl walked out of her home. Her left hand was consumed by her father's much larger one and a woman cradling a bundle of blankets stood next to the man. A surge of hate went through Kisame's veins as he suspected the woman of being the replacement of Yumi's mother. The three of them were all dressed in black and made their way towards the property gate. Kisame made sure that none of them could see him as he watched the group walk down the road. Yumi's father looked emotionless, the woman next to him smiled happily down at the bundle in her arms, and Yumi looked sadly down at the object in her other hand. It took Kisame a while to realize that in his friend's hand was a flower.

"_I found a pretty yellow flower in the garden and wanted to show it to Mommy."_

It was, indeed, a pretty yellow flower.


	10. This is Why You're Here

Chapter Ten: This Is Why You Are Here.

**Author's Note: Chapter Ten! Up and rollin'! Thanks for all the reviews, alerts, and favorites! And now, let's get this bad boy goin'!**

* * *

**Chapter Summary: The reason why Kisame is the way he is. And why he's the only one who can wield Samehada.**

Morning came quickly. The sun was just beginning to show itself from behind the horizon, its orange rays piercing through the thin morning fog. The morning dew which had collected on the grass and other wild vegetation began to drip off to the ground. A bird twittered on the ledge of a rotting wooden windowsill and stared inside of the old and beaten-down hut where a boy with blue skin and hair slept soundly on his old futon.

A stray drop of dew had found its way through the boards in the roof and dangled dangerously above the boy. It could hold on any longer. The drop fell from the ceiling and landed on the boy's nose.

With a quick motion of his hand, the boy wiped the liquid from his nose and opened one eye. He could smell the moist air from outside and heard the bird chirping on his windowsill. He sat up and began to rub the sleep from his heavy eyelids just as the bird flew off the sill and back to its nest. The morning rays made his eyes squint at the sudden brightness. It was about six thirty in the morning.

It took his tired brain a while to register the horrible meaning of six thirty in the morning. He was supposed to meet Hideo-sensei at the Northern River at five to begin training. But it was six thirty now…

Kisame gasped as he suddenly realized that he had slept in on his first day of training. With hurried and clumsy motions, he put on his pants, took off his brown shirt to replace it with his black tank-top and tied his headband around his neck. He tripped over his futon, his feet getting tangled in the fabric, and fell on his stomach. He grumbled and kicked the blankets off before running out of his hut and sprinting through the village.

Even though it was still early in the morning, there were people walking about. Most of them were shop owners who were getting ready to open their stores for customers, some were waiting for their favorite shop to open so they could be the first to et the products they needed before more people decided to crowd in, and others were just taking a relaxed morning walk. Kisame weaved around these people who were up and moving, and breathed out, "excuse me," or "sorry," to anyone he passed. His bare feet pounded on the dirt ground at such a quick pace. His lungs felt like they were on fire as they tried to keep up with Kisame's breathing. And his heart pounded so hard in his chest that he thought it would burst.

Normally, it would have taken an hour to get to the Northern River; but with the help of adrenaline, and at the speed he was going, Kisame got there in twenty minutes.

* * *

Kisame collapsed on his back, the grass cool against his skin and his chest heaving as his lungs tried to regain enough oxygen to become calm. His eyes closed and his pounding heart began to resume a steady pace. The sensei hadn't arrived yet. If the man had been here, he would have said something about him being late.

That was when a shadow loomed over Kisame's body and Hideo said, "You're late Hoshigaki."

Kisame grumbled and sat up slowly. "Sorry sensei." He was still drowsy from waking up and from his run.

"Well, you're here now." Hideo yawned and stretched, "So, we'd better get started. C'mon," he nudged Kisame's shoulder with his foot, "stand up." The gennin did as he was told and faced his sensei. The man wasn't as oddly dressed as he was yesterday. Today he wore a thin long sleeved shirt, which was border lining black in color, a back pack that seemed too small for him, and the same dark blue pants and sandals that all the other shinobi in the village wore. The only thing that was the same from yesterday was the leather belt around his pants that served as a spot for his battered headband. Hideo looked Kisame up and down with a judging look and stated, "You look sweaty."

It was true. The run was tiring and now Kisame could feel the sweat on his arms and forehead. The gennin nodded and wiped the sweat from his brow unconsciously.

That big smile appeared on the red-haired man's face, "Well then," he walked over to Kisame and placed a hand on the boy's back. The man began to walk forward, his hand pushing the boy to walk with him. They stopped at the short ledge that hung over the river, "You should cool off." And with one push from his hand, Kisame fell into the freezing river.

The river was actually quite deep. When Kisame fell through the surface his feet didn't touch the bottom. But the water was so cold that his muscles tensed and his lungs pushed all of the air out. The boy resurfaced, and before he knew it, his fingers were already digging into the grass as he pulled himself out of the freezing river. Water clung to his skin, hair and clothes as his body began to shiver and his teeth beginning to clatter together. He was still close to the edge, but his body still curled up into a fetal position in an effort to keep warm.

Hideo towered over the shivering boy when he spoke, "Hoshigaki, you're defeating the whole purpose of the exercise."

"W-wh-whu-what?" the gennin stuttered.

"The exercise." The man repeated. "You're supposed to swim against the current for fifteen minutes."

_Thanks for telling me,_ Kisame scolded his sensei inside of his head.

"Of course," Hideo added, "That's what the original timing was. But since you were late, I'm gonna make it thirty minutes of swimming. You do know how to swim right?"

"Ye-y-yes s-s-sir." Kisame was still cold from the water.

"Good!" he chirped. "Once you're done swimming, then we'll start the real training." The man placed a foot on Kisame's side and the gennin knew exactly what his sensei was about to do.

"Wait!" the boy hollered. His sensei raised a curious and took his foot off of him. Kisame stood up, his shivering not as bad as before, took off his shirt and placed it on the ground. "Okay," the gennin said, "Now I'm ready." He stood at the edge of the little cliff and stared down at the running water nervously. He didn't want to get cold again. And he definitely didn't want to be in that river for thirty minutes.

An impatient sigh came from Hideo. And before the shark-like boy knew it, his sensei kicked him off the ledge and into the river. The cold came rushing over his skin and somehow got into the core of his bones. He resurfaced and gasped for air, the current beginning to push him down river.

"Well," Hideo called out to him, "start swimmin' Hoshigaki!"

Kisame grumbled through clattering teeth before he started to move his arms and legs. The current wasn't extremely powerful, but swimming against it was a chore to do. He didn't swim very often so it was hard to find the right pace and to keep the water from getting into his mouth when he was inhaling for breath.

After five minutes went by, Hideo turned his back, sat down, and began to meditate. Kisame saw his sensei do this just as his foot brushed against a rock. The gennin looked at his meditating sensei from the corner of his eye. The man was deep into his meditation, and Kisame used it to his advantage. The rock was actually fairly large; even the tip of the rock was peeking out from under the running river. Kisame stopped swimming and rested his back against the rock, the water rushing around his body as the current pressed him against the boulder. It was relaxing, and his tired muscles thanked him for the break.

A few seconds went by before his sensei called out warningly, "Hoshigaki?"

The boy flinched at the voice, "Yes sir?"

"Better start swimming again before I add another five minutes to this exercise."

He flinched again and lowered his head into the cold water until it was up to his eyeballs. His eyes looked at where his sensei was and the man was still in his meditative position. A growl escaped the gennin, which was muffled out by the water and caused bubbles to pop onto the surface, before resuming his exercise.

Kisame didn't notice that his thirty minutes of swimming were up until Hideo called out to him, "Alright. Out of the water."

The gennin did as he was told, but he couldn't pull himself up onto the grass. Even as his fingers dug into the ground and pulled fistfuls of grass from their roots, his arms just wouldn't pull his whole weight up. Swimming in that river had drained a lot out of him than had expected. He hadn't even realized how tired he was until he had stopped swimming. Hideo even had to grab the boy beneath his shoulders and lift him out of the river. Once his feet had touched the ground, Kisame collapsed on his side and breathed. He never knew swimming could make him this exhausted. His arms and legs felt heavy and his lungs felt relieved, as if they had been under pressure. He didn't even notice he was shivering until a towel was thrown over his face.

"Dry up," Hideo ordered. The gennin did as he was told, sitting up to rub the towel on his head frantically to get most of the water out of his hair and began to wipe the water from his exposed skin. Though he still sat down, Kisame wrapped the towel around his body in an effort to warm up. Hideo made no protest of his student's actions but talked anyway, "Well, now that the warm-up is done we'll start some of your training." Kisame didn't make any noise of protest, but his tired muscles ached in protest. His sensei took off the back pack and placed it in front of Kisame. "I need to run some errands in town. You're going to come with me while carrying this backpack. Got it?"

"Yes sir," Kisame sighed once his breathing was even once more.

Hideo smiled, "Good! Now get a drink of water from the river and we'll get goin'."

The blue-skinned boy stood up and walked slowly back to the river. He let the towel slide off his back when he crouched down enough to scoop handfuls of water into his hands and up to his mouth. The cool water felt refreshing against his lips and inside of his throat. He took numerous handfuls of water before going back to his sensei, who had Kisame's shirt in his hands. The man held the piece of fabric out to the boy, who took it with a quiet, "thanks" before putting it on. The black tank-top was still a little damp, but it was in better condition that his pants were.  
As the gennin began to reach out for the backpack, Hideo picked it up first with a smile. "Here," he offered, "let me help you put in on."

Kisame looked at the man suspiciously. Something was definitely wrong the backpack, but he didn't think that his sensei would tell him what until it was on. Very slowly, the boy turned around and slipped his arms through the straps that his sensei offered.

"You got it?" Hideo asked.

"Yes sir."

"Alrighty then." And the man let the weight of the pack settle onto the boy's shoulders.

The backpack was heavy! It was so heavy that Kisame almost fell backwards. The boy had to hunch over to keep the thing from pulling him down.

"Hoshigaki!" Hideo barked, "Stand up straight! If you hunch over like that with so much weight on you, you'll stay that way forever. Then you'll never be taller than me Short-Stuff."

Kisame gritted his teeth at both the nickname and at the effort he had to put forth to keep himself from falling backwards. He couldn't stand it! "Sensei!" the gennin strained out just as Hideo was about to walk off, "It-it's too heavy! I can't carry it!"

"Hmm…" Hideo walked over to him and examined the backpack he had given his student. The man grabbed onto the handle on the top of the pack and lifted it up in the air along with Kisame. The boy's feet dangled in the air and he stared down at the ground in shock. This man was strong! Hideo put the boy down and said, "You're right. It is a bit heavy." The man unzipped the backpack and grabbed something out of it, throwing the object aside and zipped it back up. "There. That should be better."

It was slightly better than before, but not by much. The blue boy looked at what his sensei had taken out of the backpack. Resting in the grass was a thick red brick. It was then that the backpack started to feel a little heavier now that he knew what was in it. And he definitely didn't want to ask how many bricks were in it.

"C'mon Hoshigaki!" Hideo beckoned the boy to catch up with him, "We've got a lot of errands to do!"

* * *

That day of training had been to most exhausting day Kisame had ever experienced. All Hideo did was talk to a bunch of villagers and buy a couple of things; and throughout the whole time, Kisame was still carrying that backpack full of bricks. His sensei wouldn't let him put the pack down for even a few seconds. Every time Kisame had asked permission to put the pack down, Hideo would tell him to, "Walk in circles." Apparently, it was supposed to take his mind off the luggage he was carrying. It didn't work out very well. It wasn't until Hideo was done with his errands and the two of them had returned to the Northern River that the man let Kisame take the bag off. It had been such a relief when all that weight was off of his aching back; but his relief had been shortly lived when Hideo announced that it was time to spar. He wasn't sure if Hideo had gone easy on him or not, but one thing was for sure: Kisame was going to have bruises on his skin for a long time.

The gennin didn't even bother to try to catch his dinner; he limped straight into his hut and flopped onto his futon. The old fabric had never felt so wonderful and comfortable before. He could fall asleep right then and there; and he would have if it weren't for the sudden knock at the front of the hut. He was going to ignore it, especially since it couldn't have been a person knocking at _his_ hut, until he heard a familiar voice.

"Kisame-san?" Yumi called from outside, "Are you home?"

Kisame grumbled in annoyance. He just wanted to go to sleep. But he didn't want to leave Yumi alone. After all, he had no idea how long she would wait there if she thought he wasn't home. Without moving his body, the boy called back, "Yeah. I'm here. Come on in." he could hear the girl's sandals hit against the old floor of his hut but he still made no move to adjust himself. He didn't want to move from this comfortable spot.

Yumi sat on her knees next to him, her little fingers beginning to play with the edges of her yellow and white kimono. Kisame was expecting her to be dressed in her training attire, but maybe her mother's death took the mood out of the little girl. They didn't talk for a while. Kisame was too tired to think about a proper conversation to have that wouldn't remind the girl of her mother in some way. It was a relief when Yumi started the conversation with one question, "Are you okay Kisame-san?"

"No." he said bluntly.

"What happened?" she asked in curiosity.

"My new sensei," Kisame explained, his eyes closed as his muscles throbbed from the memory of today's training, "he's makin' me do all these hard exercises."

"Like what?"

"Like swimming against the current, carrying a backpack full of bricks, and then sparring with him for the rest of the day."

"Oh." Was all she said.

"Yeah." Was all he responded with.

Another silence came about them and Kisame almost fell asleep until Yumi blurted out, "I have a little brother now." The shark-like boy turned his head so he could look at the little girl. Her brown and purple hair was in a braid today and her big oak eyes weren't full of wondrous curiosity anymore. They seemed sad and regretful. It made Kisame miss the old way her eyes looked. "His name is Yasushi." Yumi went on, "Daddy gave him that name. I get to be a big sister now." She looked at him and smiled happily, "I also get to be a shinobi."

That was right. If Yumi got a little brother she would be allowed to become a shinobi. Kisame smirked and shook his head, "You wouldn't last very long."

Yumi cocked her head, "Why not?"

"Because," he said, "The teachers are a whole lot more strict. And the training is really hard."

"But," she began to argue, "but you train me. And it's not that hard."

"That's because I wasn't trying to be really strict."

"Oh."

Now it was Kisame's turn to carry out the conversation, "Training now is harder than I thought. I feel like I'm going to die from being too tired."

"You can die from being too tired?" Yumi questioned.

"Uh-huh."

"Oh."

The gennin let out a sigh, "Maybe tomorrow's training will be more different and more easier."

* * *

Training was the same way for days. Hideo would push Kisame into the river, if the boy didn't jump in himself after a certain amount of time. Then the sensei would give his student the backpack full of bricks and they would walk. Sometimes it would be a walk around the village, or walking along the Northern River; either way, they would be walking for a long time. And Kisame was the only one who was exhausted afterwards. Then lastly came the sparring. And during it, Hideo would give some advice to Kisame and then let the boy try it out. After one successful combination of a roundhouse kick followed by a back kick from the boy, the man would smile and say, "Good!" That was when he would resume his regular pace which forced Kisame to just concentrate on blocking. Then the boy would go home, eat some of the wild fruit that was close to his hut and lie down on his futon for a few minutes before falling asleep.

It wasn't until the fifth day of training that Kisame was finally able to wake up early enough to arrive at the Northern River at five o'clock. It was on this day that he felt more tired than before. His stomach was beginning to rumble, his eyelids were heavy, his muscles throbbed from the past few days of training, the wounds he had received from Samehada and the final exam were reopening, and his whole body seemed to be covered in bright purple and black bruises.

"Well look who decide to arrive on time," Hideo chimed from behind the boy, "Well then, let's get started."

* * *

Swimming hadn't been the hard part. The water had made Kisame feel so light and the cool water was soothing on his bruises and cuts. It was when he had to stop swimming that things started to go downhill. The pack was still the same weight as always, but the gennin's body just didn't want to carry it. It was too much to handle. His legs shook, even though he wasn't cold, as he walked behind Hideo. His body screamed at him to put the backpack down and to rest, but he knew that Hideo would just tell him to suck it up and keep going.

When Hideo told him to put the pack down, Kisame did it eagerly and sat down. He could feel his shoulders quiver and watched his fingers shake as if they had been in ice.

"C'mon Hoshigaki," his sensei nudged his side with a foot, "Time to spar."

Reluctantly, the boy stood and tried to spar. All he could do was block, and even then his reflexes were slow, earning him a light kick to the side of his head or a punch in his stomach. The two weren't even half-way through the sparring exercise when Hideo side-kicked the boy in the chest. Kisame couldn't take it anymore. He just let himself fall back and hit the grassy ground below. He was so grateful to just lay there. If only he could spend the rest of the day like this.

"Oh I didn't hit you _that_ hard," Hideo chuckled, "C'mon Hoshigaki, stand up."

The boy grumbled and attempted to obey his sensei's orders. He rolled onto his stomach and propped himself up with his arms. Then he tried to push himself up off of the ground, but his arms just started shaking so much that they couldn't even hold him up. His arms gave way underneath him and the gennin just laid there on his stomach, unable to find enough energy to get up.

"C'mon," Hideo urged, "get up."

"I can't sensei," Kisame breathed out, "I'm too tired. I can't…" He heard the man walk over to him and crouch down. A large hand was placed on the boy's back and began to lightly trace his spine and ribs.

Hideo whispered something, probably a curse of some sort, and said to the gennin, "Stay there." And walked off.

Kisame had no trouble obeying that order. The blue-haired boy even dozed off into a light sleep after he couldn't hear his sensei's footsteps anymore.

Something nudged at Kisame's side gently and then he heard Hideo say, "Wake up Short-Stuff. I got to talk to you for a moment." The gennin grumbled and began to sit up. He would have slumped back to the ground if Hideo hadn't helped the boy sit up and then prop him up against the man's side. "Hoshigaki," the red-haired man started, "how often do you eat?"

He had to think about it for a while, "Once a day."

Hideo looked at him in surprise, "Once a day?" he echoed.

Kisame nodded.

"And what is it that you eat?"

"Um…it used to be fish that I caught. But I've been so tired that I can only pick berries."

"That explains a lot," the man mumbled. He picked something up and then brought a plastic bag into view. Kisame didn't know what was in it until his sensei pulled out the contents. It was a carry-out box and it reeked of cooked food. Hideo handed the boy a set of chopsticks and gave him a simple order, "Eat."

Kisame gave the man a suspicious look but took the chopsticks and mumbled out, "Itadakimasu." Before opening the box and began to wolf down the contents inside. Fried rice, broccoli, and some other kind of meat that he had never had before were in the container. And in a few minutes they were gone, along with most of the boy's tiredness.

"You have to eat after training," Hideo explained in a stern voice, "Berries aren't going to be enough to get you through this kind of training. Otherwise," he warned, "you'll end up like you did just minutes ago after sparring. Too exhausted to even sit yourself up. If you eat fish along with those berries then you should be all set. And I'll even throw in a lunch break after our walks. That sound good?"

The boy nodded, "Yes sir."

The red-haired man smiled, "Good."

Kisame sat there for a few moments before asking, "Why aren't you teaching me any jutsu?"

Hideo giggled, "Because you need to be able to wield Samehada first. And training to carry that sword takes years."

"But why me?" the gennin questioned, "Why do I have to wield that sword?"

The man just looked down at the boy, surprised at all of his questions. He smiled and said, "C'mon. We're gonna take a field trip." He stood up and Kisame followed his actions. The man gathered up the garbage and carried it with him as the two began to walk towards the marsh.

* * *

Kisame and Hideo stood in front of the Seven Swords of the Mist. There were no traces of blood on the ground or on Samehada. The sensei stood calmly in the presence of the giant swords while the student stood nervously in front of the sword that had ripped his arms open. The place was quiet and smelled of burning incense.

Hideo opened his mouth to talk but nothing came out. He seemed to be having trouble finding the right words to say. Then he spoke in a quiet voice, "Your father was a shinobi. And your mother seemed like a normal person working at a book store. But really she was excellent at researching ancient seals and jutsu. That's probably how the two met…" Hideo smiled at the thought, "Your father was always eager to be the first one to try out these new techniques that your mother was able to uncover. In fact, all those techniques raised his chakra level too." He chuckled. "The Mizukage noticed how your parents worked and gave them an assignment after they were married…"

Kisame listened intently. No one had ever told him what his parents were like. In his own head he had pictured them like all the other villagers. Cruel, judgmental, and powerful. And it was because of that nature that they weren't with him now. But now that the boy was being told the truth, he was scolding himself for thinking such ill thoughts about these seemingly wonderful people.

"The Mizukage told the two to find a way for someone to wield Samehada without getting pierced by the sword's handle." Hideo shook his head, "Your mother found many theories in scrolls and books that you father was eager to try out. None of them worked and your father could barely make a fist after every failed attempt. But one day, your mother found out that Samehada could devour chakra. In order for something to do that, the object had to have its own source of chakra in it." Hideo stared at the giant blue sword, "So they came here with a syringe and took some of Samehada's chakra. They didn't use it until your mother knew that she was pregnant with you." The red-haired man looked down at his student. "So, while you were still developing in your mother's stomach, before you even looked like a baby, they stuck a long needle into your mother and into you." The man's voice became quieter when he spoke, "And then they injected Samehada's chakra into you."

The words settled into Kisame and the boy realized what his sensei was saying. It was because of his parents that he looked the way he was now. It was because of them that he was a blue freak. He was right. It was their fault. It was all their fault.

"So they left me?" the boy whispered out angrily, "When they saw that I was a blue freak, they left me?" he didn't know he was crying until he saw a tear fall to the ground.

"No," Hideo said comfortingly, "No, they didn't leave you because of how you look. They were so happy that you looked blue." The man chuckled, "It meant that their theory was correct. They were so proud of you, Hoshigaki. But one day, your father had to go on a mission." He paused for a moment and said quietly, "The only thing of him that came back was his head."

Kisame wiped the tears from his eyes, but more just kept coming.

"And your mother died shortly after from the grief of losing her husband. After that, the Mizukage ordered the academy to take care of you until you could take care of yourself."

The boy was still crying. Not because of his parents' death. Not because of the fact that the academy left him on his own in that rotting old hut. But because it was his parents' fault that he was a freak. And that they took up on the Mizukage's assignment. Why couldn't they have just let him be normal?

"That's why you have to wield Samehada," Hideo went on, placing a hand on the sobbing boy's back. "Everyone thinks that you won't be able to do it. But you can! Prove them wrong Hoshigaki."

Kisame sniffed and wiped away his tears once more, the tears finally stopping their flow. All he could say to his sensei was, "I'm tired."

Hideo smirked and smiled at his student. "I know." He picked the tired boy up and carried him out, "Let's get you home."

As his sensei carried him through the village, the gennin realized that this feeling felt familiar. Being in these set of protective and caring arms…it felt like the arms that carried him to the hospital after Samehada had fallen on him.

Kisame looked up at the man through half-closed eyes and he knew that his sensei was the one who had shown mercy to a bleeding outcast.


	11. Bullies

Chapter Eleven: Bullies

**Author's Note:**** Damn, chapter eleven already? *whistles* Nice…well, thank you everyone for the reviews, favorites and alerts! I really appreciate it! All those comments keep my fingers tapping the keyboard! Sorry this one is a little short…I wanted to focus on Yumi and Kisame's "relationship" in this chapter. Oh, and uh, you might want to read the Chapter Summary before actually reading the chapter, otherwise you might get a bit confused. Well, here's chapter eleven! Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter Summary: ****After two years of training, Kisame is finally able to keep up with Hideo. And Yumi is going through the merciless training of becoming a kunoichi.**

Kisame blocked an oncoming punch with his arm and twisted his hips to roundhouse kick his opponent in the stomach. The man grabbed his ankle and threw him aside like a doll. The gennin landed on his back but quickly rolled away just as a foot crashed down to the ground where he had once been. He stood up and blocked a front kick. Another punch came ramming towards him and Kisame instinctively blocked the punch and side-stepped from his opponent. He then stepped forward and wrapped his leg behind his opponent's; he then brought his right arm underneath his opponent's arm and grabbed his shoulder. With one quick motion of his hips, Kisame pushed the man forward, who only stumbled backward.

That wasn't supposed to happen. The man was supposed to fall instead of stumble. The gennin realized the error immediately, but before he could get away from the man, a giant hand wrapped around his waist and pulled him forward. The blue-skinned boy was thrown onto his back and couldn't move in time to avoid the fist that came down toward him.

A faint bump vibrated through the ground next to Kisame's face. He looked to his left and saw the fist tightly clenched and on the ground. The boy turned his attention to the red-haired opponent that hovered over him.

The man smiled and said with laughter, "You died Hoshigaki."

"Yes sir," Kisame breathed from exhaustion, sweat running down the side of his face.

Hideo stood up and offered a helping hand to the boy, who took it gratefully. The man pulled him up to his feet and patted his back, "Let's get some water."

Kisame didn't walk beside his sensei. Instead, he ran on ahead, taking his tank top off in the process and jumped into the cool river. He resurfaced happily, the cold water feeling good against his hot and exhausted body. He lowered his lips to the surface and took giant gulps of water. Hideo crouched over the small ledge and scooped up handfuls of water to his mouth as his student continued to drink the water greedily.

The man wiped some stray water from his chin and spoke to his student, "You've got to get your hips under mine if you're gonna try to throw me down like that." Hideo explained as Kisame looked at him intently, "I'm still bigger than you are. So you need to bend down and get yourself underneath me Short-Stuff."

The boy nodded, "Yes sir," and began to climb out of the river. He lay down on the grass, looking up at the sky and smiled. "I almost got you."

Hideo chuckled, "Yep," and he ruffled the boy's hair. "But sadly, 'almost' is never enough in a life-or-death situation." He pointed at the blue-skinned boy, "If you're ever in that kind of situation, what do you do?"

Kisame sat up and recited what his sensei had told him for the past two years, "Go for the knee caps and break their arms. Make them immobile then kill them."

The man chuckled, "Damn right." He stood up and announced, "Alright. Training's over for today. Go home. Get cleaned up. Eat. And pass out."

* * *

Kisame walked pass the academy to get home. Younger children trying to become shinobi rushed outside of the academy doors and to their waiting parents. Their parents hugged them, started idle chatter and walked home with their children. But one child was left alone on a bench, her feet swinging back and forth patiently as she waited for her parent. Her brown and purple hair was tied back into a tight bun and her red shirt matched her tan shorts. Her big oak eyes looked up and down the street impatiently, making the blue-skinned boy sigh sympathetically. He walked over to his friend and stood in front of her.

"Who you waitin' for?" he asked Yumi.

She looked up at him with a smile, "My dad. He said he would pick me up from the academy."

The boy kicked at the ground idly and stuffed his hands into his wet pockets, "You…you want me to…um…wait with you?"

"Sure." She chirped happily. He sat next to her and avoided eye contact. She looked at him and asked, "Why are your pants all wet?"

He looked down at them, as if making sure they were wet, and replied, "Oh. Um…I jumped into the river."

"With your pants still on?"

"Yeah."

"Well that was a silly thing to do."

"Yeah. I guess."

The two sat in silence for a long time. Kisame would kick at the closest rock or pebble while Yumi kept swinging her feet back and forth. "When's your dad supposed to be here?" he asked once he noticed that the sun was starting to set.

"Well," Yumi looked up the street for her father, "he said that he would pick me up as soon as he was done with a meeting."

"But he never really said when the meeting would be over?"

She shook her head.

Kisame sighed and stretched his arms towards the sky, "Well he should be done soon."

"Yeah." Yumi mumbled.

A group of kids walked by and stared at the two sitting on the bench. The four girls giggled amongst each other and began whispering among themselves while the six boys stuck their tongues out at them. Kisame just showed off his pointed teeth and pretended that he was about to get up to beat their noses in. The group stopped their teasing and ran off quickly. The gennin merely huffed at their cowardice and stared at his feet.

The two waited for Yumi's father. Hours went by and the man still hadn't shown up. Kisame yawned and noticed that Yumi was resting her head on his arm. She was about to fall asleep; and he would have let her too if she weren't such a pain to wake up.

He shook her violently and said in a loud voice, "Hey! Don't fall asleep on me!"

Yumi blinked her eyes half-way open, "What time is it?"

"Late." He responded and began to stand up. Yumi lifted her head from him yawned. "Come on," he motioned his head toward the road, "I'll walk you home."

The girl nodded, stood up and walked tiredly next to her friend.

* * *

The next day, when Kisame went by the academy, after training, the students were just being released and by the bench, where he and Yumi had sat, were a group of kids. They were the same ones that had teased them yesterday and they were in a circle, as if harassing someone. Anger made his blood-boil at the thought of them messing around with his only friend. He walked over to them calmly, trying to seem relaxed and nosy.

"You know you're only here 'cause your daddy's a noble," one of the girls sneered, "There's no way a girl like you can be a kunoichi."

"You can't even hit the bulls eye with a shuriken," one the boys joined in.

"Excuse me," Kisame interrupted them, making sure he sounded annoyed instead of meek. The group of kids turned to face him, "but it's not very polite to make fun of someone."

One of the larger boys stepped forward. He must've been twelve years old for he was a full three inches taller than Kisame. He wore a wrinkled white t-shirt, blue jeans and sandals. His dark brown hair dangled in front of his face as he looked down at blue-haired boy with an intimidating stare, "And who says I've got to be polite?"

"No one," Kisame didn't show any signs of weakness, "but one day, you're gonna be rude to the wrong person. And man, will your ass be hurtin'."

The girls in the group gasped at the curse word and even started to whisper among each other, "He said a bad word!"

The boy glared down at him, "Are you threatening me?"

"No. Just warning you."

The boy looked like he was about to start a fight until an old woman yelled at them in a raspy voice, "You kids better not be startin' no fights! I'll tell your parents and make sure you get a good whippin'!"

The boy rolled his eyes and said to his groupies, "Let's get going." And they all walked off.

Sitting on the bench, staring at the ground in shame, was Yumi. Kisame glared at the group's backs before sitting next to his friend. "They're a bunch of jerks Yumi," he tried to comfort her. "You don't need to listen to them."

She didn't say anything. The girl just kept staring down at the ground, her hands folded neatly on her lap.

Kisame rubbed the back of his neck at the uncomfortable silence. "So…is your dad supposed to pick you up again?"

"No," she whispered. She raised a hand and wiped at her nose. Another silence; and then, she whispered out, "I'm not a very good kunoichi…"

He looked at her, "Why? Because of what those jerks said?"

"No. Because I'm too afraid to fight." She wiped at her nose again. "Every time we have to do partner drills, I get scared that I'll get hurt."

"Yumi, you're supposed to get hit during partner drills," Kisame informed her.

"I know," she mumbled, "But it doesn't mean that I like it."

"Well," he tried to reassure her, "maybe your scared because it's your first time fighting. I mean, everyone is scared of new things." She didn't say anything. "Don't worry about it Yumi," he smiled at her, even though she wasn't looking, "you'll get the hang of it soon."

"'Kay…" she mumbled half-heartedly.

"Want me to walk you home again?"

She nodded; and the shark-like boy walked the girl to her house.

* * *

"Hey!" Hideo called out to his student just as the boy was making his way back home.

Kisame looked over his shoulder, "Yes sir?"

"We've got a mission to do tomorrow! So don't be late!" The red-haired man warned.

The blue gennin smiled and replied, "I won't sir!" and ran towards home.

* * *

Yumi wasn't on the bench outside of the academy doors. Even as children were being picked up by their parents, she didn't seem to be anywhere nearby. Perhaps her father finally picked her up on time?

"Leave me alone!" he heard Yumi scream. Immediately, the boy was alert and he listened to where her voice might be coming from. He saw his friend appear for a split second on the right side of the academy grounds before someone pulled her back out of sight. Adrenaline mixed in with his boiling blood as he ran to where he had last seen Yumi. Other voices were starting to become audible to the gennin as he neared the spot.

"You like having that freak show around?" a boy snarled, "So that way no one can mess with you? Is that why?"

"Let me go," Yumi pleaded, "Please, let me go home."

"No way," a girl sneered, "we're gonna teach you a lesson you weak little mouse."

Kisame rounded the corner and saw that two girls were holding Yumi in vice grips. One girl was tugging at her ponytail while another had her in an arm lock. Three boys stood around Yumi, one of them being the twelve year-old boy from yesterday. Not all of his groupies were there, but Kisame was still outnumbered. And yet…the consequences of being outnumbered didn't seem to bother him.

"HEY!" he hollered as he approached the group threateningly, "knock it off!"

The twelve year-old faced Kisame and one of the boys whispered to the kid, "Go get him Goro."

Goro straightened his back and took up a threatening stance as Kisame stopped in front of the taller boy. "You gonna do somethin' about it Fish-Face?"

While Goro's groupies snickered at the insult, Kisame kept his eyes on the tall boy, showing no signs of weakness or fear, "Yeah. I will. So let her go before I bite your finger off."

Goro smirked and looked at his groupies, "Hear that guys? He's gonna bite my finger off!"

Instead of mocking laughter, the other kids just stared in silent fear. The girl who was holding onto Yumi's hair said, "Goro, he means it."

"What're you talkin' 'bout?" the boy questioned his follower.

"Don't you know how Kyon-kun lost his finger?" a boy continued and pointed at Kisame, "He lost it 'cause _he_ bit it off!" the rest of the group nodded in agreement.

Goro looked at Kisame with a cold glare, "So," he started, "you're the one who took my cousin's finger?" he looked at his male followers and ordered, "Hold 'im back." One boy hesitated but then charged blindly at Kisame. The gennin stood his ground and waited for the boy to get a little closer…

Kisame side-kicked the boy in the gut, who doubled-over, but the gennin wasn't done yet. He pulled a fist back and punched the boy right in the nose. The boy's nose cracked and blood decorated Kisame's knuckles and the boy's face. The boy fell down and held his nose, crying and screaming from the pain.

The second boy made the tiger hand sign and squeaked out, "_Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu!" _Two water clones appeared on Kisame's right. He hadn't realized that there was a pond there until it was too late.

Kisame made the same hand sign and was about to create three of his own water clones until a fist collided with his jaw. Goro had punched him, but the gennin was still on his feet. Kisame spat the blood from his mouth and charged at his attacker, completely forgetting about the water clones.

One water clone stopped the shark-like boy's charge with a round-house kick to the gut. All the wind rushed out of Kisame and the second water clone jumped onto his back and wrapped its arm around his neck. His airway constricted and even as Kisame tried to loosen the grip, he knew it was useless.

Goro pulled out a kunai and said to the two girls, "Hold out her hand." Yumi screamed and Kisame knew exactly what the kid planned on doing. Goro walked toward Yumi, who was struggling to pull her hand away from him. The kunai knife swung in circles around his finger and then he stopped it, holding tightly onto the handle. Goro looked at Kisame and smiled, "An eye for an eye."

Yumi screamed again and Kisame charged at Goro. Even if his attack was obvious and reckless, there was no way he was going to let them hurt the girl. The only reason why they were hurting her was because of him. If she hadn't have been friends with him, they wouldn't be attacking her…not like this.

The water clone's grip tightened around his throat, but the gennin didn't stop until he had tackled Goro to the ground. The boy grunted and Kisame stood up before slamming his back onto the ground, causing the water clone to loose its shape and become nothing more than a puddle of water. The two girls that were holding onto Yumi released her and ran away from the scene.

Kisame stood back up just as the other water clone threw a roundhouse kick at him. But the blue boy was ready for it this time. He blocked the kick and punched the clone in the face, causing the clone to disperse into water immediately. The boy who had summoned the water clones stared at the gennin is fear before he ran off after the two girls.

Goro stood up and charged at Kisame's back, with the kunai still in his hand. The older boy yelled as he pulled his hand back to stab at the gennin. Kisame turned around in time to see the attack. He raised his arms to block the blade, but it brushed against his forearm and went straight into his left shoulder. A cry of pain came from his mouth and Goro kept advancing, pushing the blue-skinned boy onto the ground and getting on top of him. The older boy yanked the knife out and raised his hand once more to stab the gennin.

A small hand grabbed Goro's wrist and then a palm slammed into the boy's elbow. The sound of bones breaking filled the air and Kisame could see Goro's bones protrude out of his arm as his elbow broke. The twelve year-old by screamed from the pain and the kunai slipped out of his hand and fell harmlessly to the ground. Kisame pushed the weapon aside and kicked the boy off of him, who started to go into shock from the amount of pain in his arm. Kisame stood up slowly, his hand pressing against his wound to stop the bleeding and looked at his savior.

Yumi just stared at the work that she had done, her face pale from fright and disgust. Goro's broken elbow gushed blood from where the bone penetrated the skin. His cries faded and then he was just laying there, shivering and sweating, eyes wide in total trauma.

The sound of alert adults caused Kisame to finally speak, "Let's get out of here Yumi."

As he turned to leave, he noticed that his friend wasn't following him. He looked back and saw that she was still frozen in place, her hands shaking from the sudden rush of adrenaline and from the after-shock of what she had done. He went back to her and touched her shoulder. The girl jumped at the contact and stared at him with wide frightened eyes. There's no way she could go home without being punished by her father. At least, that's what Kisame thought the man would do to her.

"Come on," he began to lead her away from the scene, "Hideo-sensei'll know what to do."

And the two of the left the two injured boys to bleed.


	12. Mission Number Eight

Chapter Twelve: Mission Number Eight

* * *

**Author's Notes:**** Sorry for the long wait guys! I was really on a role with my book, so I was more focused on that until I hit another writer's block. As always, thank you for the reviews, favorites, and alerts! I really appreciate them! Also, I have posted my DeviantArt account name on my profile. So…yeah. That's about it. **

**Oh, and one more thing I'm gonna do really quick before the chapter begins…**

**I'm gonna give a shout out to ****MistressLemons****! She has posted most of the reviews for this story, and I just wanted to say Thank You!!!**

'**Kay. All done.**

* * *

**Chapter Summary:**** Hideo takes Kisame to an island east of the mainland to complete his eighth mission. **

"Kisame-san…" Yumi spoke up meekly. Her fingers had finally stopped shaking, but her face was still as white as a sheet. "I don't feel good…"

"Yeah," Kisame kept walking, holding onto the girl's wrist as he led her towards the Northern River. "I know. But Hideo-sensei'll help you." That is, if he could find the man. He was really hoping he was still by their training area; especially since the boy didn't know where he lived. Two years. He had known Hideo for two years and he had no idea where he lived.

Yumi suddenly stopped walking. The blue-skinned boy paused and looked back at her. Her eyes were glazed over and her face was so pasty and sweaty that it scared him.

"Yumi?" Kisame mumbled.

No answer.

"Yumi?" he called again, letting go of her wrist and turning to completely face her. "You okay?"

She opened her mouth to talk, but when she did, her eyes widened and she turned around quickly. A gagging noise came first, followed by the sound of some strange liquid splattering across the ground. Kisame's nose wrinkled at the smell of stomach acid and deteriorating food. Yumi spat extra chunks of puke from her mouth before mumbling out in a half-dazed tone, "Don't feel good…"

"Well, looks like your date is ruined Hoshigaki," Hideo's chuckle came out of nowhere. The gennin turned around eyeing the surroundings for his sensei. No trace of the red-haired man could be detected until he heard something faintly tap against the ground. Kisame turned around and saw Hideo crouching in front of Yumi. The man was rubbing her back gently with a giant hand and saying comforting words to her.

Kisame gave an annoyed look at the man and said quickly, "We're not on a date sensei!"

The man smiled, "I know. I just like giving you grief." When Hideo looked at his student, his smile and joking manner was replaced with serious concern, "What happened to your shoulder Hoshigaki?"

At first the blue gennin had no idea what his sensei was talking about. It wasn't until he looked down at his left shoulder that he remembered the wound Goro had given him. It hadn't bothered him until he started thinking about it. The blood was beginning to dry and it clung to his skin, making it itch a bit.

Just as Kisame was about to explain, Hideo cut in quickly, "Never mind. Tell me when we get to my place." He looked at Yumi and said in a kind voice, "Are your parents expecting you home soon?"

She shook her head slowly and hugged herself as if she were cold, her body shaking in short spasms.

Hideo smiled and mumbled, "Okay." He stood up and guided Yumi gently with his hand, which was still on her back, down the road. "Follow me Hoshigaki." And the boy obeyed.

* * *

Hideo gave Yumi a glass of water and said, "Here. This should help get that bad taste out of your mouth."

"Thank you." She mumbled before taking a small and slow sip from the glass.

Hideo lived in an apartment, and for a single man, it was pretty well-kept. There were a few dirty dishes in the kitchen and a dirty shirt lying on his bedroom floor, but that was it. The three of them were in his kitchen. A small round table was in the middle of the room, which Yumi and Kisame sat at, the girl still taking small sips of water, while Kisame sat across from her with his black tank-top off. A refrigerator, countertops, and sink were up against the far wall of the kitchen. Of course, Kisame had no idea what the refrigerator was for, since had never used one or even seen one. The ceiling fan was on, the harmless blades rotating around the light bulb in slow intervals. All-in-all, it was a pretty nice place.

Kisame waited for his sensei to return impatiently. It was weird having his shirt off in front of a girl. Though, why he was uncomfortable by it now was unknown to him; especially since he had taken his shirt in front of girls before at the academy, when he wasn't a gennin. Then again, he hadn't been the only boy who was shirtless at the time. Maybe that was the reason…because he was the only one without a shirt…?

It was then that Hideo came back with a bright orange medical kit in his hand. He placed the bag on the table and pulled up a chair, sitting in front of his student. "Alright," he opened the bag and pulled out a dark grey bottle and a bag of cotton swabs. "Let's start cleanin' it." He opened one bottle, put a cotton swab over the top, flipped the bottle over and turned it right-side up again. Peroxide. As soon as the soaked cotton swab made contact with the wound, a stinging pain attacked the boy's nerves.

"Ow!" Kisame jerked his shoulder back from the man's hand. Yumi's mother had done a better job at patching his arms up than his sensei was at cleaning his shoulder. The peroxide that had gotten on the stab wound began to bubble and started to sting even more.

Hideo made a clicking noise with his tongue as he stared at the bubbling, "Uh-huh. I knew the weapon would be dirty." He reached out to dab at the wound again, but Kisame flinched away from him instinctively. The man smiled and shook his head, "I'm not gonna hurt ya. The only reason why the peroxide is hurting is because it's killing at the germs that got into your wound." The explanation made the boy feel kind of better; which was enough to let the man continue cleaning the injury. Once he was done, he commented, "Geez…you need some stitches."

Kisame made a disgusted look, "I don't like stitches. They feel weird."

"Yeah," his sensei agreed, pulling out a needle and thread, "and I don't like giving them to people. But," he threaded the needle, "It needs to be done." Before he began to sew the wound closed, the red-haired man asked, "So…what happened to you two? How'd you get stabbed?"

With a deep breath, the gennin explained to his sensei about the groupies, what they were doing to Yumi, what Goro had planned to do to her, and the fight. The man cut the thread and made the finishing touches to the stitches. Yumi had just finished her glass of water and was beginning to rest her head on the table top. Her exhaustion was very apparent.

Hideo stood up quietly and went into his bedroom. When he returned, he had a brown and yellow blanket with him, which he placed over the girl's shoulders before returning to his seat. His hands were clasped together and his brow furrowed in thought. Kisame sat there nervously, wondering if his sensei was mad at him. He had never really seen Hideo angry before; the man seemed incapable of such a savage emotion. It would be a frightening day if the man ever got angry.

The boy licked his lips nervously and asked in a whisper, "Hideo-sensei? Am I in trouble…?"

Hideo looked up at him, a small smile decorating his face, "No…no, you're not in trouble." A giant hand ruffled the boy's blue hair gently, "You did the right thing Hoshigaki…protecting people from monsters is your duty." The hand stayed on his head and the man smirked, "I'm proud of you."

The gennin's cheeks warmed up at the praise. He didn't know how to react to this compliment that every student hopes to hear out of their sensei's mouths one day. Hideo gave him two pats on the head before standing up to walk over to Yumi. "I'll take Yumi-chan home and explain everything to her father." He scooped the girl up in his arms with no difficulty and wrapped the large blanket over any of her exposed body parts or clothes. "And you," he nodded at Kisame, "need to get some rest. We still have a mission to do tomorrow. So don't be late."

Kisame nodded, "Yes sir." He whispered.

Hideo smiled, "Good," and left the apartment.

* * *

It took them a day to get to the dock all the way on the eastern coast of the mainland. The travel had been exhausting for the gennin since his sensei had him carry the backpack full of bricks (though unknown to Kisame, Hideo had given him a bigger backpack full of ten cinderblocks a few months ago). It had been the first time he had traveled so far from the village and he had been expecting to see something…well, amazing. But all he had seen were trees, mist, swamps, and more mist. All the things he normally sees during training but minus the buildings and in larger quantities.

_Whoop-dee-doo_.

The docks were crowded with fishermen, merchants, women shopping for tonight's dinner with their children, and suspicious looking figures that lurked in the darker and more crowded areas. The air smelled of salt and dead fish, which was surprisingly comforting to the gennin. Even the squawking seagulls didn't seem unusual to him. Boats of all sizes and quality were anchored and tied up to the docks, the salt water splashing against their sides. And though the sight on the docks was amazing, the most interesting thing was the ocean. It seemed calm as its lazy waves rolled towards the boats and docks. As if it were enjoying life and the bright warm sun that shone down upon the humans and birds and buildings. There wasn't even any mist obscuring the boy's surroundings. And it made the scene all the more thrilling.

But even though Kisame was in awe, he made sure his shoulders were back, his back was straight, and his headband was in plain sight. He wanted to seem confident and a bit of handful to deal with if someone was to pull him away from Hideo, in case his appearance wasn't intimidating enough. But no one was paying any attention to him. They were too busy with their chores or thoughts. Even so, the gennin stayed close to his sensei as the red-haired man led him down the rows of merchants stands, sporting different varieties of fish and jewelry made from the ocean's resources.

Hideo stepped onto a wooden dock, the boards creaking beneath his feet and Kisame promptly followed, the weight of the backpack not bothering him anymore. His sensei stopped in front of a man with black hair that was beginning to grey with age, along with his beard. The man had small oval glasses that rested on the bridge of his nose. His skin was tan and his dark sleeveless shirt showed off the muscles in his arms. The man looked tough, but not as tough as Hideo, and was certainly older than his sensei.

As the two men exchanged words, a little girl with black hair, wearing a pink and red shirt, jumped from the edge of a boat and onto the dock next to the older man. She looked about the same age as Yumi but was a little shorter. The girl tugged at the older man's pants impatiently and squeaked out impatiently, "Daddy! Daddy! The boat's ready!"

The man waved a hand at her dismissively, "Okay honey. Go back on the boat. We're about to leave."

The girl seemed angry from her father's half-hearted response and turned to go back to the boat she had emerged from. But she caught sight of Kisame and froze in place. Her eyes were wide as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing. All Kisame could do was raise a hand in a feeble attempt to wave. "Uh…hi?" was all he could think of to say; the girl's facial expression was too distracting for him to think straight.

A short high-pitched scream came from her mouth and she hoped onto the boat quickly. Kisame could hear her feet thumping against the wood as she tried to get as far away from him as possible.

The older man looked over his shoulder at his daughter's sudden outburst and hollered at the boat where she was hiding, "Oi! What're you screamin' about?" the man didn't even wait for her response. He simple shook his head and just as he was beginning to face Hideo again, the older man caught sight of Kisame for the first time. "Whoa!" he exclaimed and jumped in surprise, his eyes never leaving the blue-skinned boy's form.

Kisame simply rolled his eyes at the man's reaction as Hideo tried to calm him down, "Ah, Tazuna-san. That's my student, Hoshigaki Kisame. He'll be helping you and your team with the supplies."

The older man, Tazuna, made a surprised smirking noise and looked at Hideo, "_That's_ a gennin!?" It wasn't as obvious of an insult like some of the other words the villagers had used. They used words like _monster_, _freak_, _abomination_, _disappointment_ and other such things; but being called "_that"_ made it seem like he wasn't even a living being in the man's eyes. The word caused a little pang at his heart and gut, but he made sure his expression didn't change.

Words shouldn't upset a shinobi. Just like wounds shouldn't slow down the success of the mission.

Hideo's jaw shifted and his eyes seemed to be colder but he maintained his composure, "Yes, he is a gennin. A really good one too."

Tazuna looked at the red-haired man suspiciously, "Oh really?"

"Yes sir," Hideo smiled, "I can assure you, you'll get more than your money's worth out of this boy."

The older man huffed, "Huh. I better." And he climbed into the boat his daughter had hid in. Hideo followed the man and Kisame followed his sensei.

The boat wobbled from the waves that pushed around it. If it weren't for the rope that was tied to the dock and the anchor that had settled into the sandy bottom, the boat would have drifted towards the merchant stands and crashed. It was difficult to get his footing just right so he could stand still, and it was even harder to walk about the boat without toppling over. He caught a glimpse of the little girl hiding behind a crate who disappeared behind the object when she noticed he had seen her.

Tazuna got off the boat again and began to untie the rope that was wrapped around a stake in the wooden dock. He threw the rope onto the boat and Kisame got out of the way quickly as the older man climbed back on board quickly. Hideo began to pull up the anchor, which turned out to be a thick rope tied around a really big rock, and the two men began to direct the boat out towards the open ocean.

The sudden movement made the blue-haired gennin lurch forward and he had to hold onto the edge of the boat to keep from falling on his face. The weight in the backpack wasn't helping him get his sea legs adjusted.

At first it was amazing to be on a boat and to watch the waves roll around the boat's surface. The salt water sprayed onto his face and it made the gennin grin in excitement. But they were about half an hour into the boat ride before Kisame's stomach began to churn. He was afraid he would throw up in front of the man who had hired them. So for the rest of the trip, the boy had to lie down to keep his stomach from forcing his small meal out.

* * *

Night had fallen by the time the boat had reached shore. The stars were outshone by the moon and a light mist covered the ground and the ocean's surface. Kisame's eyelids were heavy but he fought off the thought of sleep as he climbed out of the boat clumsily. It was odd to walk on a still surface after getting accustomed to one that had continuously moved. Hideo and Tazuna fastened the boat to the dock, making sure it would still be there by morning.

Tazuna climbed out of the boat with his daughter sleeping soundly in his arms followed by the red-haired Hideo. The older man and his sleeping daughter went one way while sensei and student went the other.

The gennin's legs were still getting used to the still ground; and the added weight of the backpack made his body wobble left and right, trying to find proper balance. The wonderful thought of sleep made his eyelids heavy and his body even clumsier. He wasn't sure what time it was, but he was very sure that he had never been up this late.

They had walked for what seemed like hours to the boy. But the moon wasn't far from the position he had last seen it in. So it hadn't been _hours_. Maybe it had only felt like hours because this was new territory to him? And even though he tried not to ask his sensei anything stupid, Kisame couldn't help but break the night's silence, "Where are we going Sensei?"

Hideo didn't look at him. In fact, Kisame wasn't sure where his sensei was looking, how he was walking, or what mood the man was in. The blue-skinned gennin's mind was light and fuzzy with exhaustion, as if there was a mist covering his senses. It made his mind not want to think, not want to pay attention to the new surroundings, not want to stay awake any longer…

It was the red-haired man's voice that broke through the boy's drowsiness, "A hotel. We'll be staying there until we've completed the mission."

An eyelid began to droop dangerously, but Kisame rubbed it hard in an attempt to keep it from closing again. "What's our mission?"

Hideo made a clicking noise with his tongue and then made an inhaling hissing sound. Sleep was blinding the man's mind too and he was trying to remember why they were there, "Oh…they just need an extra hand at transporting supplies to a town. And they need someone to protect them in case bandits decide to rob them."

If he had been full awake, Kisame would have been excited. This was the first mission that could have a fight in it. All the other ones had been simple D-ranked missions: Helping an old woman with her groceries, catching stray animals, getting rid of rabbits terrorizing a poor lettuce farm, etc. But this one…this one promised actual excitement. This one would test his years of training. This one will prove whether he's ready to be a shinobi or not.

It was a real shame that this didn't excite or frighten the gennin. In fact, as soon as he and Hideo arrived at their hotel room, the gennin went straight for the futon. He rolled it out quickly and collapsed on top of the soft and comforting surface, not even bothering to get under the blanket part of the futon.

* * *

The futon was so soft beneath his tired body. It was definitely softer than the one he had back at his hut. It had made his sleep more…fulfilled. In fact, he wasn't even drowsy when he opened his eyes and was greeted by the morning rays that leaked through the window. He sat up, yawned, stretched his arms and stood up. The clothes he had worn yesterday were still on him and they smelled of salt water. His hair felt sticky and tangled. So he went into the bathroom and got his hair wet; just enough to get all of the salt out of his hair.

He walked out of the bathroom, his blue hair damp from the wash, just as Hideo walked into the bedroom.

"Oh good, you're awake." The man remarked his student. "Did you wash the rest of yourself up?"

Kisame shook his head, "No sir."

"Well you better do that quick," the man said, "Just enough to get the salt off of you. It'll make you itchy if you don't." he turned to leave, but then held a finger up and turned back to the gennin, "Also, you should hurry up with your bath. We got to meet Tazuna-san soon and your food's getting cold."

The boy blinked at the man's words, "You…cooked?"

"Yeah," Hideo nodded.

"Why?"

"'Cause you'll need the energy," the man replied. "Now hurry up or I'll give it to the stray cats that are in the alley." And he left. Kisame quickly got back in the bathroom and took his clothes off to bathe.

Breakfast had been…surprisingly good. Kisame had been expecting half of it to be burnt or look gross. At least that's what he heard from some of the women in the village talk about after the night their husbands or boyfriends decided to cook for them. But it looked neat and tasted good. And it had filled him up fairly well. When they were done eating, the two shinobi made their way to the destination point where they would meet up with Tazuna and the other men who were a part of the job.

It was somewhere around nine in the morning, and the sun was out. The morning chill made Kisame shiver, but he knew it wouldn't last long. Plus he would be working a lot so his body heat would keep him warm. Hideo had made him wear the backpack but the boy didn't complain, even as he saw some men loading the open wagons with crates and slabs of concrete. There were three large wagons, none of which had any type of covering, and harnessed at the head of each one were two mules. Kisame had never seen such creatures before, but their bleats were a horrible sound to hear and their stench made his nose wrinkle and his eyes water.

Hideo went up to Tazuna, who was overlooking the progress, and greeted the older man, "Good morning Tazuna-san! What do you need us to do?"

Tazuna greeted Hideo with a curt nod and then pointed at the crates, "Well, you can help them over there. They're going a bit slow. And your, uh, student…" Tazuna looked at Kisame with judgmental eyes. "He can carry some cinderblocks to the wagons."

Hideo looked at his student and said, "You heard him. Help with the cinderblocks." Just as the gennin was about to leave the man added, "Oh, and uh, take you backpack off. You can put it back on when you're done."

"Yes sir." Was all Kisame said before letting the bag slide off of his shoulders. The full backpack hit the ground with a loud _thud _and the boy went to work.

A man was handing out armfuls of blocks to the people who came up to him empty-handed. So the gennin went up to the man and held out both arms, waiting for them to be filled. The man looked at Kisame and blinked a few times before asking, "What do you want kid?"

"Cinderblocks Sir." He replied. "I'm supposed to help you."

"Uh-huh," the man regarded and grabbed one cinderblock with his hand. He placed it on Kisame's arms and started handing out five more blocks to another man. The weight on the boy's arms didn't strain his muscles or even feel heavy. In fact, it didn't feel like the man had even placed a cinderblock into his hands. It felt more like a small brick.

Kisame waited for the man to stop handing another stack of blocks to someone before speaking up, "Excuse me Sir."

The man looked down at him and smirked, "You're still here?"

"Yes sir," the gennin replied, "I can carry more."

The man raised an eyebrow, "You can carry more?"

"Yes sir."

He regarded Kisame with suspicious eyes before grabbing three cinderblocks and placing them on top of the one the boy was holding. The weight was just starting to feel noticeable to the gennin. He could carry more. Maybe six? Or even seven cinderblocks?

"Sir?" the blue-skinned boy peered over the stack of grey blocks he was holding to see the man.

The man looked down at him and shook his head, "Too heavy?"

"No Sir," the boy replied, "I can carry more."

Laughter erupted from the man and Kisame almost dropped the cinderblocks from the sudden outburst. The man grabbed the boy's shoulder with meaty fingers and grinned, "Boy, if I give you anymore you won't be able to see where yer goin'!" He released his shoulder, "Now, take those blocks to the wagon and I'll keep giving you blocks."

Kisame did as he was told and walked quickly to the wagon and quickly back. He wanted to do a good job at this. Even though the task was simple, he would make sure he did a good job at it. The gennin had lost count of how many trips he had made from the man giving out the cinderblocks to the wagon. But by the time he was done, the sun had shifted and everyone else was just finishing tying down the crates.

"Alright!" Tazuna yelled to the group, "Let's get goin' boys! We ain't got all day!"

And with that, the drivers on the wagon lashed at the mules' reins and they set off.

"Hideo-sensei?" Kisame began as he walked next to the red-haired man. They had been walking with the caravan for a few hours now. The road was dusty and dry with a forest on the right side and open fields on the left. Hideo and Kisame both walked on the right side of the middle wagon; just in case someone decided to attack.

"Hm?" was all the man said.

"What are those crates full of?"

Hideo looked at the crates and shrugged, "Spices, food, fabric." he looked down at the boy, "The basic trading goods."

"Okay," Kisame looked at the head wagon. Most of the men were walking next to that one, while Tazuna's daughter was riding on the wagon, sitting on one of the crates and playing with her doll. Kisame knew her name was Tsunami, he had heard Tazuna call her that during the walk, but why she was here was unknown to him. "Why did we need the cinderblocks?"

"Apparently," Hideo explained, "some of the houses in the town we're going to have been damaged by a storm. So instead of using wood, they're going to use cinderblocks to rebuild their homes with."

Even Kisame knew that that was a bad idea. But people were strange; and if they wanted a cinderblock house, then they could have one.

The two shinobi continued to walk with the wagons and men, staying on guard at all times. Hideo would keep looking ahead, acting as if he wasn't even paying attention to his surroundings. Kisame would look at the woods on the right, knowing that that would be the best place to set up an ambush. But even when they got to the halfway mark, there were no signs of bandits or suspicious activity anywhere. It made the gennin disappointed that he wouldn't be able to beat anyone up.

They were almost at their destination when the blue-haired boy heard something. It was a faint rustling noise, somewhere further into the forest, but it was enough to make him stop and stare at the undergrowth and trees. There were no shadows or figures that looked human, but then again they could be hidden beneath the bushes and the safety of the trees.

Instinct took over the boy's legs as they shifted into a fighting stance and his muscles tensed. The rustling noise got louder and he could even see the leaves from the bushes shift from something pushing through them. But even as the noise grew closer, the boy still couldn't see what the cause was. Then, the rustling stopped. He stood there for a while, even as the last wagon rumbled by, leaving him behind. Still, nothing happened; almost as if it nothing had happened at all.

"Hoshigaki!" Hideo called out to him. Kisame looked at his sensei who beckoned him over with a hand, "Stop daydreaming and get over here!"

"Yes sir!" He looked at the forest one last time and shook his head. He must've been hearing things; especially if Hideo didn't even notice anything unusual. Just as the gennin began to walk back to his sensei, something larger than himself tackled him to the ground. The attack caught him off guard and he would be something if it weren't for the strange clawed hands that held him down. Then, something wet, warm, and smelly began running itself against his entire face rapidly. He began to push at the figure, gagging at the smell, and felt fur beneath his fingers. It was then that he realized the that the clawed hands that were holding him down were paws and could even hear the excited whimpers that came from the dog between the licks.

"Ugh," Kisame turned his head away from the happy dog, which just began to lick at his ear and jaw. He pushed at the dog's face, but then the dog just started to lick his fingers. "Gross!" the boy exclaimed, still trying to get the dog off of him. "Ugh, get off of me!"  
Someone's whistle pierced the air, and the dog suddenly stopped licking the gennin. Its head turned and its floppy brown and black ears did their best to perk up. Kisame was wiping the drool from his face when he heard his sensei click his tongue and call out, "C'mere pup!" The dog got off of the blue-haired boy and trotted over to Hideo obediently as if it had done so a million times before.

Kisame sat up; wiping the last of the dog's foul smelling saliva from his face with his arm. Hideo had crouched down and was petting the dog's neck playfully, its curled tail thumping on the dirt road happily. Tazuna had gotten off of the wagon and was standing next to the shinobi, staring down at the dog in confusion. The gennin stood up and walked up to the two men and kept his distance from the mutt. He didn't want to get tackled to the ground again by the walking fur ball.

"Where do you think it came from?" Tazuna scratched the back of his head.

Hideo patted the dog's side dismissively, which made a hollow thumping noise, and stood up. The dog stood up too and looked up at the man expectantly, its mouth open and tongue hanging out. "Dunno," he said to the older man, "but she belongs to someone."

Tazuna raised an eyebrow, "What makes you say that?"

The panting dog whimpered and pawed at Hideo's leg. The shinobi rolled his eyes and scratched the dog behind her ears. "Because," he started, "she came when I told her to. Someone had to train her to do that."

Kisame still stayed away from the canine. He didn't know why, but he didn't like it. Maybe it was those large fangs that made him nervous?

His sensei noticed his hesitation and spoke, "There's nothing to be nervous about Hoshigaki. This is a good dog." He grabbed the boy's wrist and pulled his hand towards the dog's nose. The boy tensed for a split second as the dog's wet nose began to sniff the tips of his fingers in short rapid inhales and exhales. "She won't bite."

And just as the words left the red-haired man's mouth, the dog lunged with maw open and teeth flashing. But it didn't strike at Kisame's hand. Instead, the animal took a hold of Hideo's belt and began tugging at it viciously. The sudden attack caught the three humans off guard. Kisame jumped away from the animal and Tazuna stepped a few feet away, wondering what he should do. Hideo grabbed the dog at the scruff off her neck and pulled her backward, but the dog wouldn't let go of his belt. The animal snarled and shook its head back and forth viciously, the movement making Hideo stumble.

Tazuna got behind the dog and wrapped his arms around its body. The man stood up straight and brought the dog with him. Its fangs were holding onto the red-haired man's headband as the older man began to pull it in sharp harsh motions. Finally, the fabric on Hideo's headband ripped and came off his belt. Tazuna stumbled and fell backwards, the dog wriggling free from his arms and dashed off into the forest with the headband still in its mouth.

Kisame looked at the forest where the dog had disappeared with wide eyes, not paying any attention to the grumbling Tazuna or his swearing sensei. The event had happened so fast; did it even happen at all? When he looked at his sensei, the man's headband was missing from his belt and there were teeth marks indented in the leather. Yup. It had happened.

"Great," Hideo mumbled, "now I've got to get a new headband…I'm sure they're just gonna _love_ my reason for a new one. Just great…" the man paused and took a deep breath. He looked at Kisame and smiled as if he hadn't been upset just seconds ago, "Well, we'd better keep moving. We still got a job to do." And with that, the sensei turned and caught up with the caravan, with his student following him obediently.

* * *

None of them saw the dog lay down in the forest to gnaw on the metal headband excitedly. None of them saw the man that went up to the dog and took the headband from its jaws. None of them saw the man's smile as he began to pet his dog's head. None of them heard him say, "Good girl," before turning to his group of thugs to tell them of his new plan.


	13. Ambush

Chapter Thirteen: Ambush

* * *

**Author's Note:**** Fufufufu! Sorry for the horrible cliff-hanger, but I had to! ^_^ There's lots of action in this chapter, so there's your reward! Plus, there's gonna be a lot of time-skips soon. Like, Kisame'll be sixteen in one chapter then eighteen in the next. Uh-oh! Was that some…foreshadowing??? :O. Oh well, I'll be sure to mention the time-skip in the Author's Note and somewhere in the chapter. Thank you for all the reviews, favorites and alerts!! I really appreciate them all! Please enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter Summary:**** The caravan is ambushed by a group of thugs. Will Kisame be ready for such a fight at the age of nine?**

Unloading the wagons was easier than it had been to load them. Everyone knew where which house a crate was going to go and how many cinderblocks a broken down house needed. Kisame did most of the cinderblock transport, and this time Hideo told him to try it out with the backpack on. It made progress slower than when he had loaded the blocks onto the wagon, but he was still faster than the other men that were helping to unload. Once the crates were emptied of their contents, they were loaded back onto the wagons. Though, none of them stayed to help rebuild any of the buildings. The head of the town told them that they had done a good enough job and didn't want to keep Tazuna from his main profession. Turned out the older man was a bridge builder.

How interesting.

But the townspeople did allow the group to stay to eat for a while. Kisame stayed by Hideo's side at all times; he didn't want to be seen by anymore of the townspeople. The few that had already seen him were frightened and had already begun to whisper amongst themselves. Once everyone had had their fill, the group made their way back to where they had come from.

They were going much faster now since there was no added weight in the crates for the mules to haul around. But even so, everyone was resting on the wagons except for Hideo and Kisame. The two shinobi were walking on the left side of the middle wagon instead of the right. The sun was still shining down upon their bodies which were starting to sweat from all the work they had done.

Kisame was even starting to get a little home-sick. He missed waking up in a place that he knew. He missed his own little hot springs that he would go to after training every day. He even missed talking with Yumi. Hopefully, those bullies were leaving her alone now. When was she going to graduate from the academy anyway…?

Yumi!

He hadn't told her that he was going on this mission! Usually he would tell her as soon as he found out about it so she wouldn't wonder why he wasn't at his hut. He hoped she wasn't too worried about it. After all, he'd only been gone for what…? Three days? At least? Yeah, she wouldn't be too worried. Why would she be? It's not like he was her only friend.

The drivers halted the mules and men began to hop off of the wagons and stretched their tired limbs. Tazuna went up to Hideo and explained, "There's a lake nearby by. We're going to take the mules there to get a drink. One of you needs to come with me."

Hideo looked down at Kisame and smiled, "Think you can protect the wagons from anymore slobbering dogs?"

Kisame was not amused by his sensei's joke. "Yes sir." He replied through gritted teeth.

The man chuckled and ruffled the gennin's hair happily, "Good. We'll be back soon." His sensei left with the bridge builder and the drivers, who led the tired mules by their reins. They left Kisame alone with the rest of the workers and the little girl, Tsunami. At least he would get some rest. They hadn't met up with anything hostile so far. What were the chances of meeting up with danger now?

* * *

It had been a few minutes and Hideo still hadn't come back with the others. Though he didn't want to admit it, Kisame was worried for his sensei. Were they okay? Did someone attack them? He shook his head at the thought. Hideo was a strong man. If anyone ever attacked him, they wouldn't win.

A cool breeze blew in from the forest and the gennin smiled at the soothing wind. The sudden cold felt so nice to him, as if he had been training non-stop for hours. It was then that he smelled something that didn't belong to the forest. It smelled more like metal…

_Blood_.

Something inside of him snarled. It was faint, just like the smell was, but it was there. The savagery was beginning to emerge, just from that little whiff of crimson liquid. The blue-skinned boy shook his head and turned away from the forest. He didn't want to get out of control. Not now. It was then that he felt a strange presence. It wasn't an animalistic presence. No, it was much darker than that. Kisame faced the forest one more time to try to find the source.

One of Tsunami's toys fell off the wagon and flopped in front of a bush. The little girl jumped off the wagon and went to retrieve her fallen play-thing. Kisame turned his head and hollered, "Stop!"

The girl froze for a split second before facing him. Her hands were on her hips and she glared at the gennin, "Why should I?"

"The forest," he had to convince her. Had to tell her it wasn't safe to be near the shadows that the forest provided for whatever it was that was hiding. "It's not safe! Go back on the wagon." Tsunami rolled her eyes and began to stomp towards her toy defiantly. Kisame took a step towards her and bared his teeth. "Tsunami, it's not safe! Stay away from the—"

A large hand gripped his throat and pulled him back. Just as it seemed his windpipe was about to snap in half, the hand threw him forward with such a force that the gennin's body broke the crate that was in the way. The boy fell to the ground along with pieces of splintered wood. The backpack on his back hadn't softened the fall, but had made it worse. He heard Tsunami scream and the rest of the men that were there suddenly become alert. Everything began to hurt. Even as he tried to stand back up, his body throbbed with pain. Every fiber of his being just wanted to lie back down, to play dead. But the part of his brain that remembered his training with Hideo told him to get up; to ignore the pain and move. If he stayed still, he would die.

Kisame got to his feet, and stumbled forward but remained on his feet. A heavy man jumped onto the wagon and cackled. The gennin didn't look at the man, but rather at the katana that was in the man's hands. He felt his heart skip a beat and his legs began to move slowly forward. He heard the man jump to the ground and felt the blade cut through his back pack. The blow from the sword caused Kisame to fall on his stomach and he frantically tried to get the backpack off of him. A piece of broken cinderblock that had been in the pack, rolled beneath the gennin's hand. The boy gripped onto the slab of hard rock and rolled onto his back just as his attacker raised the katana over his head for one final blow…

With one quick motion, the gennin threw the broken cinderblock at the man's face. The rock crushed into the man's nose and eye. He cried out in shock and pain, his hands opening and his sword falling onto the ground. Kisame stood up and charged at the large man.

"_If you're ever against someone who's bigger than you, Hoshigaki, you break their knee caps first. That way, they can't chase after you…"_

He heard Hideo's words echo in his head as he neared the man.

When he was close, the boy lifted his leg and side-kicked the man's knee. The delicate and hard-to-heal bone snapped in two. His attacker screeched in pain and fell to the ground. The bone was sticking out of the side of his leg. And that was when the savagery took control of the gennin.

Kisame grabbed another piece of cinderblock. This man's screams would attract more bandits. He needed to be silenced. Needed to stop that pathetic screaming. Stop those tears that the eyes squeezed out. Stop this weakness.

He didn't realize he had been pounding the man's face in with the cinderblock until someone from behind grabbed onto his hair and pulled him up off the ground. A scream erupted from the blue-skinned boy's mouth, and his grip on the cinderblock tightened instead of loosened. This man punched the boy in the gut and threw him onto the wagon. The bloody cinderblock was still in his hands, but soon the gennin wished that it wasn't. His attacked stepped upon the rock and crushed it into the boy's hand. Another scream came out of Kisame's mouth, but he silenced it by clenching his pointed teeth together. He rolled his head to look to his left and saw large piece of splintered wood that had once been a crate.

With shaking hands, the gennin grabbed the largest piece he could get and stabbed it into the man's leg. The man lifted his foot in reaction long enough for the gennin to pull his injured hand out from underneath it. Suddenly, the foot crashed down upon his stomach, knocking all the wind out of his diaphragm and possibly rearranging some of his organs.

Kisame curled up into a ball. The stomp had been harder than most of Hideo's kicks. The attacker stepped over him and began to his gut repeatedly until he grabbed the boy by his shirt and threw him to the ground once more. At this point, Kisame had no strength left to fight back, let alone get up. He felt the man grab his hair again and pull him up only to crash his face into the hard wood surface of the wagon. He felt his nose crack and shift from the impact and tasted the blood that ran over and seeped into his lips.

Blood. _His_ blood. There was so much of it. But he wouldn't die from blood lose. Not yet at least. Not unless this man kept beating him like a practice dummy.

_Fight back…fight back!_ The savagery snarled at his weakness.

_I can't…_ He replied to it. _It hurts…I can't._

The man let Kisame go and he fell limply to the ground. He didn't want to get up this time. So what if he died? At least all this pain would be gone forever. No more pain…

"_I found a pretty yellow flower in the garden…" _Yumi's voice was faint, almost a whisper. The image of his friend in a black dress, holding a yellow flower in her hand, appeared for a split second before his eyes. Would Yumi go to his funeral? Would she bring a pretty yellow flower to his grave while everyone else celebrated his death?

A little girl screaming pierced through the air and Kisame saw Tsunami fall to the ground. A giant man hovered over her with a chain wrapped around his knuckles. He laughed at the cowering girl below him and suddenly, the two were replaced with a distressed Yumi. Her long hair was being pulled by two other girls while Goro held a kunai knife to her extended finger.

"No! Don't!" He screamed, but the image flickered back to Tsunami cowering beneath the smiling man.

"Shut up," His attacker growled as he wrapped his hand around Kisame's mouth. The boy glared at the hand. A new flame of energy erupted from him and he realized he needed to get out of this man's grip. He had to keep fighting. He couldn't give up. If he died here, then those bullies would pick on Yumi again. And he wouldn't be able to stop them.

He wiggled his jaw and was somehow able to open his mouth just enough to bite down on the webbing between the man's index finger and thumb. The man cried out in pain and Kisame yanked his head backwards, the back of his head knocking against the attacker's nose. The gennin took the piece of webbing with him as the attacker released his hold on him. He landed on his feet and limped away from the huffing man, trying to find something to attack him with.

The spot where Tsunami and her attacker had been was empty and the girl was nowhere to be seen. But her attacker was on the ground in a puddle of his own blood. The sight of the blood would have made the savagery in Kisame erupt again if it wasn't for the kick in the back he received.

The gennin turned over and saw the man he had bitten standing over him. Rage covered the man's face. His teeth were clenched, his jaw was tight, and his nostrils flared. "You! You ugly sunava—URK!" Something poked out from his throat. Blood splattered onto Kisame's already bloody face. The object shot out to the left and escaped from the man's throat. More blood sputtered from the dead man's neck as he fell to the ground. In his place stood a blood-stained Hideo, who had a kunai knife covered in thick crimson liquid in his hand.

"Get up," His sensei ordered bluntly, "You'll die if you stay still."

Instead of saying "Yes sir" as he stood up, Kisame asked, "Are they all dead?"

Hideo looked about the place with wary eyes, "No." he exhaled through his nose, "The rest are hiding."

He wanted to help his sensei look. So with shaking arms, Kisame hoisted himself up onto a wagon and began to look about the place. One of the workers laid sprawled out on the ground, blood running out of the corner of his mouth. The rest that were dead were bandits. Everyone else was injured or in shock at what had happened.

Tsunami was sobbing in the arms of her father, who was glaring at his surroundings as if daring anyone to try and touch his little girl again.

"HOSHIGAKI GET DOWN!" Hideo yelled. Before the blue gennin could do anything, his sensei pushed him down and hoped onto the wagon, all in one motion. Something hissed through the air and was followed by a pained grunt from the red-haired man. Kisame looked over his shoulder and saw the back end of an arrow protruding from the back of his sensei.

As the gennin stared in the horrific fact that his sensei could be injured, the red-haired man reached behind him with angered eyes and yanked the arrow from his back without a second thought. He stood up and faced the forest, raised his hand in front of his torso, and caught the next arrow with ease. With a simple twitch of his fingers, the arrow snapped in half and he threw the projectile to the ground.

Hideo began to make quick gestures with his hands and he soon paused. "_Suiton: Suiryudan no Jutsu!_" the man called out. Kisame knew that this was a water based jutsu, but how did his sensei plan on using this attack when they weren't near any source of water?

That was when he heard liquid gathering. He looked at the ground and saw water leaking out of the dead body of one of his attackers and slithering in front of Hideo. More water collected in front of his sensei; some of it was even stained red. Soon, there was a medium sized water dragon hovering by the forest. The sound of rushing water erupted from the dragon's open mouth in a roar just before it shot into the forest. Water brushed against leaves and splattered against trees. A grunting noise was heard after the water dragon dispersed. Deep in the forest, Kisame could barely make out the shape of a human with a branch sticking out of his torso.

"Now they're all dead." Hideo muttered before jumping off the wagon.


	14. Chuunin Exams

Chapter Fourteen: Chuunin Exams.

* * *

**Author's Note:**** YAY! Fourteen is up and rollin' (finally)! Sorry for the really long update, but I've had the BIGGEST writer's block for this for some reason. And I was working on some other fan-fictions :D. Thank you for all the reviews, favorites, and alerts! I really appreciate them! So enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

**Chapter Summary:**** Kisame hears word of the Chuunin Exams and wonders why Hideo hasn't mentioned them before.**

Two workers were dead and six were injured. Four thugs had been killed near the wagons and three more had been slaughtered by Hideo's hand, their bodies rotting underneath the sun's hot rays. And yet, the caravan moved on, bringing the bodies of their fallen comrades but leaving the thugs' bodies behind. Tazuna held his daughter tightly and protectively as she kept sobbing into his chest. He glared at the surrounding terrain with burning eyes as if daring anything to try to harm his little girl one more time.

Those who could walk did, their senses more acute after the ambush, and left room on the wagons for those who couldn't stand. Kisame hobbled behind his sensei, trying his best to keep up. The adrenaline had numbed out most of the pain during the fight and had helped the boy stay focused and balanced. Now that the action and adrenaline had subsided, the pain from his injuries attacked his nerves and made the world spin. His whole body was sore from the abuse it went through during the battle; of course, there were some parts of him that hurt more. The hand that the man had stepped on was red, swollen and bleeding. It was so sensitive that even stray gusts of wind would make the pain more intense. His broken nose was still bleeding and sore. There was dried blood on his chin, but his lips were not stained by the crimson liquid. Mainly because his tongue would lick the metallic-tasting liquid from them as soon as he felt the blood touch his lips. His body just wanted to lie down, to be still. Sleep would make the pain seem less unbearable. But he had to keep up with the group. He had to keep up with his sensei.

The wound in Hideo's back had stopped bleeding a while ago, but Kisame could see the dried blood that had crusted on the man's shirt. It was his fault that his sensei had been injured. If only he had been able to sense the hiding bandit…then his sensei wouldn't be hurt. Yet, even as his mind told him to get on the wagon and rest, he kept walking. If Hideo could keep going with an injury then so could he.

Hours passed before they could finally see the town that they had started off in. Kisame was just now starting to pant from exhaustion. His mind had learned to ignore the pain a few miles back, and his nose had finally stopped bleeding. Though, his hand seemed to be getting worse. Maybe when they got back to the hotel he could ask Hideo about it?

It was then that the red-haired man looked back at his student and asked in his normal, kind voice, "You doin' alright Hoshigaki?"

"Yes sir." He didn't want to bother his sensei about his hand now. Not until they got to the hotel. Instead of believing the boy and continuing the walk, Hideo stopped and stared down at him with suspicious eyes, which, somehow, still held some humor in them. Kisame stopped in front of his sensei and looked up at him. "Sir?"

"Hoshigaki," he began, "your nose and hand are broken, you have bruises all over you and you've been having trouble keeping up with me ever since the ambush ended. And you want me to believe that you're _okay_?"

The gennin felt like he had just been caught stealing. He didn't know why, but it was just the way Hideo had spoke that made him feel this way. With a feeble nod, he replied, "Yes sir."

A smile tugged at one corner of the man's mouth, "Good answer."

At first, Kisame thought that that was the end of their conversation. That Hideo would turn around and keep walking. But instead the man kneeled down; wrapped one arm around the gennin's legs and picked him up, setting him on top of one broad shoulder. A surprised "whoa!" escaped the boy as his hand rested upon his sensei's head for support. The man's red hair was damp with sweat and had bits of dried blood in it. Without a word, Hideo began to walk quickly to catch up with the rest of the group. Kisame's grip tightened on the man's head as he stared at the ground below in shock and fear. He had never been this far from the ground before. What would happen if he fell? Then again, why was Hideo carrying him like a child?

"Wh-what are you doing Sensei?" the boy kept staring at the ground.

"What does it look like?" he chuckled, "I'm carrying you."

"But why?"

"Because you need the help."

"No I don't!"

"Yes," the man chuckled again, "you do. And the fact that you denied it means you're willing to not slow your teammates down; which is a good thing. But," he did his best to look up at Kisame, "there_ are_ times when you can ask your teammates for help. Sometimes, it's your reluctance for help that slows everyone down."

Kisame took in his sensei's words and said nothing as the man carried him for the rest of the trip.

* * *

The wounded men were immediately taken to the closest hospital. Hideo-sensei sat Kisame down on a brick wall, making the boy eye-level with the red-haired man, and began to tend to his student's broken hand. The boy did his best not to yelp, doing his best to seem strong in the eyes of the onlookers; but he couldn't help but feel a bit dizzy and tired. A quick nap would be nice right now. Maybe he would take one when they got on the boat…? Bandages wrapped around his entire hand, making it seem like one giant mitten. He couldn't move his fingers at all, but at least some of the pain was gone.

It was then that Tazuna stomped up to Hideo. The bridge-builder grabbed the older shinobi by the shoulders and spun him around. For a split second Kisame was sure that his sensei would punch the man in the jaw for such behavior; but instead, the man stood his ground and stared at the angry older man.

"'More than my money's worth' huh?" The bridge-builder growled, "Two of my men are dead, six more injured, and that was the best that _thing_ _could do!?_"

Even though the boy was drowsy and was focusing on his injuries, he still heard the insult, and it still made his insides churn with anger and hurt.

"I thought he was supposed to be a gennin!? Isn't he supposed to be better than that!?" Tazuna kept yelling at Hideo, who kept himself firmly planted to the soil and staring the older man square in the eyes.

Hideo squared his shoulders and spoke in a calm-leveled tone, "Forgive me, Tazuna-san," it was obvious that the shinobi had to make an effort to keep the anger out of his voice, "It's my fault. I should have sensed the attackers' presence sooner." He bowed to the still fuming man out of respect.

Tazuna grunted, "If this is the best you guys can do, then I'll be amazed if that _student_ of yours even makes it to the chuunin exams." The man turned and walked away, leaving behind an angered Hideo and a shameful Kisame.

* * *

On the way back to Kirigakure, Kisame was still mulling over what the bridge builder had said while rubbing the bandaging on his hand. Had he been a bad shinobi because two people had died? It made him feel weak. But there was another thing that was bothering him…

"Hideo-sensei?" he mumbled half-heartedly, still depressed at his weakness. The man grunted in acknowledgement, "What're the chuunin exams?"

A heavy sigh escaped Hideo, "They're a test for all gennin. If they pass, then they are promoted to the chuunin level."

Kisame's face lit up in excitement at the news, forgetting all about his depression that haunted him just a few moments ago. So that's how he could become a chuunin! "Am I gonna take the test sensei?"

"Eventually."

"How long is 'eventually'?" The boy was impatient. He wanted an exact date now so he could train harder and advance in rank!

Hideo scratched the back of his head in deep thought and sighed, "Not until you've mastered Samehada."

Kisame furrowed his brow in frustration at his sensei's stalling. "How long will that take?"

Another sigh, "Eight or ten years."

The gennin's heart sunk at the disappointing news. Eight or ten _years!?_ That would take _forever!_ He lowered his head and watched his feet as he followed his sensei back to their home village.

A large hand ruffled his hair reassuringly along with words that were just as reassuring and gentle, "Don't worry kid. It'll be worth it in the end."

"Yes sir," Kisame mumbled. He didn't want to wait eight years to take the chuunin exam. He wanted to take it sooner! He wanted to get stronger, more powerful than anyone else and prove people wrong! If it meant working harder and getting hurt more, then so be it. No matter what, he would become a chuunin in less than eight years.

* * *

Training started at five in the morning; but Kisame had gotten up and started to train at three in the morning. Even though his hand was broken, that didn't stop the boy from training harder than before. He made sure not to use it as much, but if he had to, then he would ignore the stinging pain and keep going. For an hour he swam against the river's current as a warm up. For thirty minutes he practiced generating water clones and making them do forms with him. Then, he and the water clones started to spar with each other until a surprised Hideo interrupted them.

"How long have you been here Hoshigaki?" the red-haired man asked as the water clones dispersed into puddles.

Kisame wiped the sweat from his brow and replied between breaths, "Two…hours…Sir."

The man had a bulging backpack in his hand, a replacement for the one that broke during the mission, which he handed to the blue gennin. "Uh-huh…why were you here at three in the morning?"

Kisame took the backpack eagerly and slipped his arms through the loops, "If I train harder, then I can take the chuunin exam sooner."

An amused smirk crossed onto Hideo's face as he put his hands on his hips, "You really want to take the test that badly?"

The gennin stood up straight and nodded with a stern face, "Yes sir."

The smirk morphed into a smile as a hand ruffled the boy's blue hair fondly, "Well then, if that's what you want, then I'll train you harder. We'll start training at three and end at our usual time. Everything else will be a surprise." He looked down at the boy with a big grin on hi face, "That sound good?"

Kisame nodded with a determined grin on his face, "Yes sir!"

"Good! Now, I want you to go from one end of the village to the other twenty times. Oh and, you're only allowed to be on rooftops. After that, you're going to the hospital to get that hand properly fixed up. Now get goin'!"


End file.
